Repair an Antique or not?

The Queen Ann hall table sits in my living room. It's an antique, and I have its provenance. It was built for my great grandfather by his neighbor, a professional woodworker. A cherry tree on my great grandfather's farm was cut down and the deal was that the neighbor could keep the rest of the wood if he built this table.

It has come down to me in excellent condition except for one flaw. When my mother was about two years old, She sat on the stretcher through the center that joins the legs on the right with the legs on the left and broke it. The stretcher was turned in two parts with a round mortise and tenon joint in the center. The mortise is cracked on the bottom and that allows the stretcher to sag to the floor under its own weight.

Here's the question: Do I repair it? I know that good furniture restoration does not affect the value of the piece, and I am sure I have the skill to make an invisible repair with doweling inside the mortise. The only problem is that it makes the joint no stronger, and therefore it is likely to fail again. In addition, if I do repair it, I do not get to hear my grandmother and my great aunt ragging on my mother everytime the family gets together at my house. This is a Christmas tradition along with the story of how another great aunt ran numbers for the Purple Gang, and how my grandmother used to roller skate to Canada across the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit. I guess it comes down to a value judgement. Which is more precious: the table or the stories?

I have been pondering this dilemma for a while. So far, I have found no sure answers. I just see the sagging stretcher every day, and ponder it.