I Hate Saying Goodbye....Even to a Car

I cleaned up the Sequoia tonight and emptied everything out to get it ready for tomorrow. It's amazing how much clutter can accumulate in the car. I had to make sure I removed all our "stuff" and restore it to its original state for the next owner. Now that I'm done, I feel sad. Even though we've only had the Sequoia for a couple of years, those years included a lot of journeys. Journeys into the back country, up mountains, down valleys, over rocks and across streams, in the snow, and in the heat of summer. Journeys to the supermarket and the mall, to birthday parties, to swimming and Tae Kwon Do lessons. Journeys with laughter and singing, and crying, and tantrums! Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that those things will never happen again. We will continue to make new memories as a family, but like a faithful steed, the Sequioa was there for some good ones. Because of the age of my children, I will especially cherish those memories.

When we got home tonight, I asked my two older daughters to make sure they collected all their toys out of the back and clean up their stuff because I was going to pick up the new car. They actually did a really good job. My middle daughter stuffed her jacket pockets with various Polly Pocket accesories, Happy Meal toys, Barbie clothes, and paper and wrappers and other garbage so that she could bring it all in the house. My oldest daughter peeled off the numerous tiny sparkle stickers of dolphins and whales she had stuck on her window. The stickers seemed like they had been on there forever because she put them on after she got them from a long forgotten birthday party. The dolphins and whales were in a curvy row, one following the other like they were swimming in the undulating waves of the sea. At first I was annoyed that she stuck them there because it cluttered up the side window. At least she stuck it on the glass, I thought. At the time I was going to remove them, but decided not to because maybe that was just her way of marking her spot. They've been there ever since. I guess what makes me sad the most is that her act of removing the stickers tonight was like she was erasing herself from the Sequoia.


Postcript, December 14, 2005 - 9:00 pm: My wife had recently bought the girls new winter jackets with matching mittens. After picking up the new car, I went upstairs to tuck the girls in bed and with tears in her eyes, my second daughter told me that she couldn't wear her new mittens anymore: she had put them in the bucket that was still in the old car. My eldest chimed in, "It's in the old car!" They both looked at me knowing that we would never see the old car again. I reassured them that I had taken the bucket out of the old car and in fact it was sitting in the garage. I would put her mittens by the door so she could wear them in the morning. *sigh* I feel bad that they were worried about it all day.

Comments

  1. So... have you picked up your STI, yet? How many kilometers have you put on it? :o)

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  2. Very poignant postscript - but you you should double-check the date :o) I'm glad she can still wear her mittens.

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  3. The date is in fact correct because it was after I came back from picking up the STI. I edited the text to clear up the confusion.

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  4. Maybe I'm confused? I thought you picked up the STI on 14 December, not November?

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  5. Oh, sorry, I've been having trouble with the dilithium crystals in my time machine lately. I'm going to have to have that checked out ;0)

    ReplyDelete

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