Tuesday, May 18, 2010

An Ode to My Van

Today is the season finale of my van... It has gotten us through many tough spots and events, all beginning with my father-in-law's last days on earth. Hence.. my van story...

In November, 2003 we were on our way out of town to visit my FIL who was gravely ill. I proceeded to hit a deer on the way with my Ford, had the county sheriff come and pick us up, haul us into the next town where a dealership had a used van sitting and warming up for us to continue our journey. We ended up buying that van to use at our business for deliveries. We lost Bill's dad November 15th. Since we had the extra vehicle now, our son was going to buy the '67 Ford from us and wanted it repaired. The weekend he took it to be repaired, we lent him one of our vehicles. That was the weekend that Tyler was killed in an auto accident - just two weeks after losing Bill's dad. The van kept running tho, even though the poor thing was old and had nearly 200,000 miles on it. It was nice to have something that just kept on going, even when we had pretty much just stopped living. But times change, people heal and go on as best as they can. Vans have different stories. They can't last forever, even though you'd sure like for that to happen. Our van took us through the loss of many, and the loss of much. It stood by us through thick and thin, it let itself be made fun of and degraded, it always did it's job, it got old and rusty, but never wanted to give up - it was kind of like the story "The Giving Tree" only substitute my van for that dear tree.

He's off to maybe help some other of his kind work better, look better, feel better.... and to give other owners maybe some peace of mind at finding local parts.

I know, this all probably sounds pretty soppy and silly, but this van has seen a lot and been through even more. He's been our best friend through it all.

I will miss you - now it's time for you to go help others...........

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