Gone but not forgotten

When I first started this blog in August 2008, I wrote about listing our van for sale. It was sentimental as I recounted some good memories we had from owning and using this vehicle for 12 years. I felt that way then. The sentiment dimmed over the next five months when no one was interested in buying this wonderful, memory filled vehicle. The car was in excellent shape and had relatively low miles (103K) for a car of its age. There was lots of interest, but we never made the sale.

Part of the problem was the wheelchair lift. It worked fine and should have been a tremendous asset. However, we never lowered the floor of the van. In order to ride in the wheelchair in the car, a person would have to be shorter than Maggie is. (Who is less than 5’). It was a bit of an albatross. One man was interested for his very small elderly mother. It was close, but no cigar. When he did not buy it, I knew we were in trouble. We were not reaching the wider audience who could get the value of this vehicle.

When Tim was home for Christmas, he used it a little bit. However, an 18 year old reuniting with his friends who have scattered to various colleges just does not want to show up in a 13-year-old minivan with a wheel chair lift. Hurts the image. Seriously.

I used it as much as possible, but only when Maggie was not with me. She is too tall for it now and the wheelchair locking system in that van was never fitted to her new chair. I don’t really drive around that much without her.

A week or so ago the battery died. I just left it where it was parked and did not deal with it again until street cleaning day. The City of San Francisco is very wise to have street cleaning day – the streets are cleaned of litter as well as cars that owners are tired of dealing with. We jumped it and drove it around to charge it and then put it in the driveway. The next morning, it was dead again. It needed a new battery. Great.

I decided this new battery was the final straw and started lobbying to donate it. An agency that deals with disabled individuals could put it to good use. We could take a write off and do something good at the same time. My husband correctly pointed out that the tax write off is worth much less than the cash we could get in a sale of the car. True, I countered, but if no one is buying it and actually GIVING us the cash, the write off is worth a lot more. And, now we had to spend money on a new battery, just so that we could have to park it and move it to avoid tickets. And, we could remove it from the insurance. And. And. And. It is a win win win.
He agreed. I went online and found an agency that I like that accepts these donated cars. They will be able to utilize the real value of this car, whether they keep it themselves or sell it. I was delighted. They came yesterday, handed me the paperwork, hooked the car up to the tow truck and drove away. I felt accomplished.

I looked at the papers in my hand; then I looked up and watched the car being towed away.

And I felt sentimental all over again.

Memories flooded over me as I stood in the driveway watching it turn the corner. I saw images of trips to soccer games, vacations, doctor’s visits, teaching the boys to drive etc etc. It was an ignominious end to a reliable vehicle that I drove for over 12 years.

I hope it finds a new happy home.