My maternal grandfather, James William Halvangis (1920-1973), drove truck for a living in the city of Detroit, Michigan. He was a member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local Union No. 299. When he died, his Teamster Brothers presented our family with this Holy Bible.

The Bible itself sits in a sturdy and handsome wooden box. As long as I can remember it was either displayed in my mother’s china cabinet or stored with our family photo albums and mementos.

A message of sympathy from the Local 299 is firmly affixed in the inside cover, below Jesus’s outstretched hands.

Until just today I had never noticed the stamp on the back of the wooden case. It says it is “Union Made” by the “United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America”.

I never got to meet my grandfather. But I have learned a lot about his life in the last several years since researching our family’s story. Here is a video I put together a while back which, hopefully, captures a bit of his spirit.

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