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Audrey Iona Bradford (nee Sexsmith)

June 14, 2018

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May 3, 1919 - June 14, 2018
"Gram" to all her family. Predeceased by her husband, Bernard W. (Brad) Bradford, and her siblings Austin, Ernestine and Murray. Missed by her children Ron (Skip), Wendy, Karen and Craig, and all her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Ashes will be interred privately, and a reception for family and close friends will be held in Nelson on August 14. Please email aibradfordmemorial@shaw.ca for details.

Gram's life was one of contrast and change. She grew up on a farm without electricity, drove to school in a horse-drawn buggy, and lived through a war most of us don't remember. But hers was also the generation that ushered in Canada's modern era.

She and Brad lived in towns that were at the forefront of Canada's industrialization: Bissett, Riondel, Pine Point, Elkford. She led a family life that was typical of the post-war period: at home, raising the kids, getting dinner ready for when the mine whistle blew at 5:00 PM. She sewed clothes and Boy Scout patches, made jam and cookies and candy from scratch. Then, after Brad died in 1969, she was also the forward-looking single mom: getting a job with the mining company, shepherding her three younger children through high school, and setting an example for the independent, self-reliant young women of generations to come.

So much of Gram's story is the reflection of a way of life we will never see again; so much of it is the forging of the life we know today. Her story lives on in we who keep her in our memories. Until we meet again.