Tom. We are so sorry for your loss.  Our prayers include you and your family.   Diann and Gary Walls

Tommy,
I am so sorry to read this about Candee… my love and prayers for you and the family.

Love,
Susan Barclay Steadman

Part Two:  We had so many inside jokes that we couldn’t hardly look at each other without laughing every time we were together.  We had the same sarcastic sense of humor.   I’m going to miss her laugh.  I’m going to miss her calling me Cat.  I knew whenever I heard her say Hey Cat… that an adventure would follow.   And we have had lots of great ones!  One time we drove to Tennessee in 14* weather, in a truck with no heat to pick up a chifferobe to paint.  We were freezing.  All bundled up, coats, gloves, scarves- we were still freezing.  We even stopped in Ft Payne and bought thicker gloves and some fleece blankets to wrap up in.  I’m driving down the interstate and she sucks up a lemon seed up through her straw.  The window was frozen shut so she couldn’t roll it down.  She looks at me, laughs, and spits it in the floorboard.  We just about wrecked we laughed so hard.  And 20 years later - a lemon seed could still throw us into a fit of hysterical laughter.  God I loved her so much.  

The past four years have been really hard.  She was a very private person and most people don’t really know all that she has been through.  She has been a trooper.   Uncle Tom, thank you for everything.  For always being her knight in shining armor.  For the love and care you have always shown her.  For your patience.  For loving her in sickness and in health.  

She was truly loved by everyone that knew her.  But some of us were lucky enough to be truly loved by her.  I was one of the lucky ones.

Part One:  If you know who I am then you know how difficult this is for me.  If you don’t know me, I am Candace’s favorite niece Leah - regardless of what my sister Anji says.  My Aunt Candee has been more like a mother to me than an aunt for most of my life.   Especially in the years since my mother passed away.  

As a child her house was an escape for me.  Todd and I are the same age so I was the built in cousin-friend that spent weekends there, spent lots of summer days at the Hokes Bluff pool, and even went on a few beach vacations with them.  

As an adult, she was who I wanted to be like.  She taught me how to see things differently.  She taught me how to work for what I wanted in life.  She had confidence in me when I didn’t have it in myself.    She helped me get my first really good job working for the Gadsden Mall Management and I was determined not to let her down.  I was there almost 14 years.  

She taught me how to believe in myself and how to think outside the box.  Especially as an artist.  I mean- how does one even come up with the idea to paint big cats sitting in chairs on bathroom walls??  She did.  So we did.  And people thought I was crazy….but I loved them. 

She taught me how to see beauty in people and in places,  and how to surround myself with things that I love instead of following what was trendy.  She taught me what it was like to have true class and to always be the better person (at least in front of the other person).

 She has always been my favorite person to be around.  She’s been my confidant, my safe place when I needed one, my mentor, my art instructor, my partner in crime, my best friend. 

Continued in Part Two…

Candee was such a wonderful person.  I loved her dearly.  Tom, may God comfort you as only He can.  Much love to you and the family.

OBITUARIO

Candace Cartee Bradford

19 mayo, 1950 – 8 septiembre, 2024

Collier-Butler Funeral Home

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