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LOGAN — A Cache Valley man is working to bring an antique carousel to life in his own front yard.

It's taken Vean Woodbrey several years, but now the project is nearly finished, and it may have helped him in a battle with cancer.

Woodbrey has learned that when you're working with a relic, sometimes you have to make do with what you can find.

"All the parts are simple. They're just not available," he said. He said the effort is well worth it to restore this piece of his childhood — a 1930s, possibly 1920s era Allen Herschel carousel.

"You could collect pop bottles," he recalled. "I'd take them to the store and cash them in. Then I'd go to Liberty Park and ride the carousel, have an ice cream cone for a nickel."

Many of the parts in the middle of the carousel are the originals, including poles and supports that hold up the animals. But just about everything else, Woodbrey has had to improvise and build on his own, including the animals.

He glued and carved each one from wood.

"Everybody's got a favorite, and I can't pick a favorite because I've got me in every one of them," he said.

Now all of them are mounted except for a solid oak elephant. "I got carried away," Woodbrey admitted. "He's too big. I'll need a crane to get him out."

Photo: KSL TV

For Woodbrey, there's another so-called elephant in the room — multiple myeloma, which can spread to nearly any part of the body and has left him with a paralyzed leg.

"I've got good days and bad days with my cancer," he explained. Woodbrey doesn't like to talk about it, and his son Christopher has noticed that the carousel helps with that.

"(I've) never seen his face light up so much before. Now that the kids are gone, he gets to enjoy all the grandkids and see their excitement pour over it," Christopher Woodbrey said.

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2012: Childhood carousel helps Cache County man fight cancer A Cache County man is putting quite a bit of money and years of hard work into rebuilding a childhood memory.

Vean Woodbrey has 86 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. With uncertainty about his condition, family members say it 's important for Woodbrey to finish the carousel now.

"It will be around a lot longer than me," he said. "It's going to bring a lot of years of joy."

"Somebody told me it would never pay for itself, and I said, 'Have you seen my grandkids?' And he said, 'Well, they're over there, jumping on your panda bear.' And I said, 'Well, it's paid for itself already.'"

He's expected to finish the carousel over the weekend and admits it hasn't been easy.

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