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The Memorial Candle Program has been designed to help offset the costs associated with the hosting this Tribute Website in perpetuity. Through the lighting of a memorial candle, your thoughtful gesture will be recorded in the Book of Memories and the proceeds will go directly towards helping ensure that the family and friends of Robert VanAnden can continue to memorialize, re-visit, interact with each other and enhance this tribute for future generations.

Thank you.

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Robert VanAnden
In Memory of
Robert J.
VanAnden
1917 - 2015
Click above to light a memorial candle.

The lighting of a Memorial Candle not only provides a gesture of sympathy and support to the immediate family during their time of need but also provides the gift of extending the Book of Memories for future generations.

Thank you for your kindness, Uncle Bob

When I was 18, I took a trip to New York City after my high school graduation with my best friend in 2001. I contacted Great-Aunt Sylvia and Great-Uncle Bob to see if they would be open to me visiting them in Hartford and they welcomed me with open arms. I very much wanted to see the place that my father, Don Brayton, had spoken so fondly of in his boyhood memories. I spent 5 days in Manhattan and then went to upstate New York to see Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Bob. They picked me up at the train station, took me to the Slate Valley Museum and then gave me a driving tour of the area around Hartford. I was so in awe of being in a place where there was a Brayton Road! Once we arrived at their house in Hartford, Bob took me on a walk around the town and to the church, where I visited the graves of family members. Later on, Sylvia showed me the town museum. I’ll never forget sitting down to dinner with Bob and Sylvia and listening to stories about the Brayton family farm and eating yellow green beans from their garden. They both laughed when I told them that I didn’t even know that yellow green beans existed and that I was terribly excited to try them. I spent a cozy evening with Bob and Sylvia and then visited family the next day before going back to the train station. I will never forget the kindness of Uncle Bob and Aunt Sylvia having me out to visit them and sharing stories about my Grandfather Sid and Grandmother Edna. That trip has been something that I have held dear in my heart ever since, and I will never forget it. It was a pilgrimage to see my own heritage and to have images to match up with treasured stories. In the years that followed, I always corresponded with Aunt Sylvia and Uncle Bob, and after Aunt Sylvia passed, I still made sure to write to Uncle Bob at least once each year. I will forever be grateful for Uncle Bob’s kindness to a young woman who missed her grandparents very much and found a connection to them at Sylvia and Bob’s house in Hartford.
Posted by Bonnie Brayton
Tuesday January 20, 2015 at 1:21 pm
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