Bye Car

It has been a hard day here. Pa and I had to go to town and get some pictures. We stopped and ate some semi- junk food for lunch and came home.
None of that was all that hard.
The hard part was calling a tow truck to come pick up our old Chevy station wagon. That wagon has been more of a home to us then the house we live in.

It all started with a Christmas trip to Florida to see my folks. We had gone to Pa's folk's for Thanksgiving and after getting back home, Pa said "we couldn't take that car to Florida". I so "gently" informed him that "I didn't know how he was getting there but come Christmas the kids and I were getting in that car".
I had been praying about a new car for about a year and was planning on another year before we would have to buy one. I had it all picked out and was very specific with my prayers. A nice dark red with gray interior along with certain bells and whistles. A well cared for used car.

Then Pa interferes with my plans. One day, at the gas station, I see a station wagon on the cover of Wheels and Deals, I bought the booklet and showed it to Pa. A week goes by and Pa is trying to rent a Van to drive down home but by that time all Vans have been rented. For the cost of rental we could fix the old car but Pa didn't want to put any more money into it. The next week, at the gas station, I looked at another Wheels and Deals, the car was still there. When Pa got home from work I so "gently" informed him that the car was still listed and that if he was going to look at it he had better get to it. He called, we drove a hour south of here, looked at it and Pa said we should try to buy it. Something that I knew just wasn't going to happen but just in case I prayed that if this was the car God wanted us to have "please let the old one die" so I would know that it was God and not Pa
The process started, the loan people wanted to see the car and the car lot people just let us bring it up here, that was unreal to me. The loan people needed one more paper before they could tell us if the loan would go through. I took the paper up to Spring Hill. On my way home I wasn't happy, this wasn't the car I had been praying for. It was white with blue interior and I wasn't ready for a car payment.

"Please Lord, let me know that we are doing the right thing. Please just let this car die if the new one is what you want for us" was prayed again half heartily.

I'm going down the road worrying about this mess and the car dies, right in front of one of the old construction gates at Saturn. Pa was at work and I didn't know what else to do so I just went through the gate, walked down to the plant, went in and called Pa. He couldn't believe that I just walked into the plant. I told him that 2 or 3 security cars went by and saw me walking across the field but didn't stop. We had the car towed home and the next day picked up the new wagon. The old car never started again for us. The kid down the street bought it and had no trouble getting it to start. He drove it to Florida that next spring.

We made many trips in that car, took Farm Wife to college, took a hospital bed up home for grandma, weddings, anniversary's, funerals, camping trips, girlfriends to visit a very homesick FW two weeks before she was to come home for Thanksgiving brake. Lots of singing, lectures, talking, fighting, playing and praying.

That car now belongs to people who will use it for other good things. That made its leaving easy to watch and me happy in my heart.