I love that my dad was such an optimistic and practical person. Even into his 80s, he remained active in making things for me. I wrote about the door he made for us in a previous post but it was too big for him to fit it into his car so he traded it in on his birthday and bought a van! He called to tell me he bought himself a van for his birthday and needed me to come with him so I could sign too because he wanted my name included on the title as well. He said the van was much easier for him to get in and out of.
I immediately had flashbacks to when my favorite aunt bought herself a new car when she was old and only had it a month or so before she died. I was really hoping this wasn't going to be history repeating itself. Fortunately, it wasn't. Dad enjoyed driving his van for about 7 months before the doctor told him he shouldn't drive anymore. He was very good about listening to his doctor and gave us the van on the condition that we would drive him places such as doctor appointments and stores if he needed to go which I was happy to do. Giving up driving is a very difficult thing for many elderly people because it takes away their independence so I was very thankful that dad had enough sense to stop driving when the doctor told him to. (The doctor didn't realize he was still driving--he should have stopped long before!)
At first we were going to try selling it but then we both liked it so much and it was newer than both the cars we already owned, so we decided to put "For Sale" signs in both our cars and sell whichever one that we could sell first. It happened to be mine. Our neighbor across the street bought it from us for his daughter.
I would never have thought to purchase a van since it's just my husband and I, but it has come in very handy when I had to clear out my dad's house after he died. It held three big loads of junk that I took to the annual garage sale our church school has every May, and it's nice to have when I take my Sunday School class on outings now and then. It also came in handy when we bought furniture because we could easily fit it in the van. Thanks, dad!
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