Cradle unites families, fosters a feeling of community

Second of two parts:

Rick DeGraw is proud the cradle he built has held up. It’s never needed repair or refinishing, even as it moves back and forth through various nurseries.

DeGraw offers the use of the cradle when he learns someone is having a baby, and he never says no when parents-to-be ask.

He orders brass plates etched with each baby’s name and birth date and mounts them on the cradle. They tell its history.

There’s no marker indicating whether a child’s parents were Democrats or Republicans.

“All the kids who sleep on it are smart kids, so they’ll become Democrats anyway,” DeGraw said with a chuckle.

That made Brittany Kaufmann, a Republican and lobbyist for the Arizona Board of Regents, laugh, too.

She met DeGraw while working at the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He offered her the cradle for her daughter, Evelyn, in 2016.

“It was an honor honestly,” Kaufmann said. She and DeGraw bonded over parenting, something she hadn’t expected.

The cradle’s current occupant is Isla Ensell, the daughter of Meghan Krein and Greg Ensell, a lobbyist for the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association.

Isla’s brother, Archer, 3, slept in it in 2015.

Ensell likes that if he reaches out with his foot in the night and gives the cradle a push, it will rock and keep rocking until Isla goes back to sleep.

“It’s fun knowing how many babies have slept in the cradle,” Ensell said.

Ensell will pass the cradle to lobbyist Sam Richard, an Osborn School District board member, whose baby is due in June.

Davidson likes that so many babies have shared the cradle.

“It reinforces a sense of community,” she said. “Over the years, we live our own lives, but we are connected in a real way.”