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Brace Family

The Key People in Grant Brace’s Life

The Brace Family can best be described as a traditional American family from the South, with a love for one another that runs deep. Parents Kyle and Jackie Brace have been married for 35 years. As members of the hard working middle class, Kyle has been a mechanic and Jackie has had various roles including stay-at-home mom, preschool teacher, and hospital patient coordinator. They were blessed with two children Kaylee (daughter, born in 1995) and Grant (son, born in 1999). As parents, they have always strived to model and instill a few basic principles into their family; hard work, respect, loyalty, and standing up for what’s right. Kaylee has grown up to become a successful first-generation college student, is happily married and works as a nurse. Kyle, Jackie, and Kaylee’s lives were turned upside down with the loss of their son and brother, Grant. They describe times throughout this process where things were so dark and complicated that it seemed like there was no end in sight. A loss of someone so meaningful in such a senseless preventable way makes the grief process extra complicated, traumatic, and seemingly never-ending. The family hopes to continue Grant’s legacy by sharing his story, his life, and his death. They aim to bring awareness and education to sports culture and exertional heat stroke and hope to ultimately prevent other families from enduring a tragic fate like their own.

His Father

Kyle Brace

Kyle was born in a small town in Upstate, NY. In grade school he never had much interest in regular school courses but gravitated toward the real-life skills. He excelled in auto repair, metal shop work, wood working, and all the mechanical hands on classes. He got into the sport of wrestling in middle school which was/ and remains a huge competitive sport in the northern United States. Kyle had an immediate love for the sport and attributes a lot of his early age life skills to the time he spent wrestling. What Kyle appreciates most about wrestling is that it is individual in nature, 1vs1, and if you work hard, you get your chance on tournament day. He has always felt that wrestling is one of the hardest sports and teaches accountability, self-confidence, and grueling hard work. Besides wrestling, he spent his time on the lake water skiing, jet skiing, and snow skiing. After completing high school, he decided to follow his love for auto repair and moved to Nashville, alone at 18, to attend technical college. While in college he worked at the local motor sports shop where he met his wife of 35yrs., Jackie. He describes it as love at first sight. They got married and the rest was history. In their young adult years Kyle raced jet skis and worked as a mechanic.
A few years into their marriage they had their first child Kaylee, and then shortly after came Grant. Kyle has always worked hard to provide for his family and enjoyed seeing his kids grow and excel in whatever they put their mind to. Grant and Kyle always shared a special bond with their love for wrestling. Losing Grant in such a senseless way, to a sport they both loved, has been life altering. Kyle admits it’s disheartening to see that modern sports culture often place ego and accolades above safety. He feels led to pursue sharing Grant’s story alongside the rest of the family so that others understand the danger and responsibility that comes with safe sports.

His Mother

Jackie Brace

Jackie describes herself as a southern girl born and raised in the Nashville area. She has been married for 35 yrs. to Kyle who she describes as a very talented hard-working man. She takes pride in her Christian faith and feels “God is in control.” She was blessed to have been a stay home mom for many years before entering back into the work force in various roles. She has spent time as a pre-school teacher, worked at a senior living facility and hospital within the past few years.

In her personal time, she enjoys camping, being in nature, spending time with family and friends, boating, and has a new interest in aviation. She was blessed with two amazing children, a son-in-Law and three dog babies (Alpine, Millie, & Charlie.) Jackie describes her greatest accomplishments as “being a mom” and successfully raising two respectable, responsible adults. Losing Grant has been the most traumatic experience she feels any mom could endure. After creating, birthing, and raising a child, losing them to such a senseless death has been unimaginable.

Her passion moving forward is to share Grant’s Story to help others. She seeks to inspire change in our sports culture and hopes safety becomes a forefront. A mother’s love is the fuel that enables a normal human to do the impossible.

Her favorite quote: “The best thing to hold onto in life is each other” – Audrey Hepburn

His Sister

Kaylee Brace Wagnon

Kaylee is best described by others as determined, honest, authentic, and with a sharp sense of humor and love for adventure. She tries to see the world intentionally with a broad perspective and understanding that each interaction we have will impact someone in a positive or negative way. She grew up with a busy childhood in Nashville, TN as well as a couple years in Upstate NY. She played every sport imaginable but stuck primarily with basketball and marching band in her later grade school years. She always knew she wanted to pursue a career in the medical field and followed that passion to the University of Tennessee Nursing Program where she received her bachelor’s degree.

Following college, she took a job in the local Trauma/ Surgical ICU and then eventually transitioned to Chemotherapy! All the while her love for traveling and action sports took up most of her personal time. Her favorite hobbies are scuba diving, snowboarding, jet skiing, playing xbox, hiking and has even gone sky diving.
She is happily married and has two crazy dogs who accompany her on many adventures. She has always found a passion through helping others and gaining knowledge and experiences to help her better do so. When Grant passed away, she was 25 years old, and describes her life as being put into a temporary state of shock. She had seen bad things in the world through her medical experience, but this hit home. Her fire and passion for creating positivity, change and helping others gradually returned and her mission alongside her parents became clear: To create a legacy Grant would be proud of.

She continues to work as a nurse and also works diligently to help make a lot of the behind-the-scenes things happen for The Grant Brace Projects. She misses Grant everyday but feels comforted in knowing he is alongside her in continuing to help others.

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