Isn't it odd, how things take on almost personality because they remind you so forcibly of someone you love.  I sure hope other people have that, or I'm going to start feeling pretty demented....

  
Today we said goodbye to Frankie's Caddie. Gosh that thing was just about the funniest reminder of him.  It was a 1984 Cadillac Sedan Deville. You didn't actually drive it, you just sort of aimed it in the direction you wanted to go...it was a land yacht. In the summer, you got in and the interior was so hot, you were amazed it wasn't melting, not to mention the 3rd degree burns you had to nurse after touching the steering wheel!
It had a feature called the "Level Ride" which...leveled the ride! haha. It also was a constant drain on the battery, so you had to make sure and start the thing every 2 days, or the battery would die. Frank would get in, point at the dash as it lit up to say "Level Ride" and he would say "Lllllevel Ride..." in that way he had.
It was often quite funny to see this wiry little guy in uniform driving to work in something that looked as though it belonged in the "hood" as it were.
Hannah remembers daddy letting her ride up front on one of his charge the battery runs around the block.

When Frank was declining, he asked me at one point to go out and start the Caddie, which hadn't been started in like 4 days. Our friend Steve was here, along with my Sis who was taking care of us & the kids & a couple officers. Steve volunteered to start the car. It was quite sometime that he was out there, and when he came in, he looked miserably hot & sweaty from being in that interior. The battery was dead. Poor Steve had been out there praying like crazy that it would start, he knew how my OCD Frankie would be about that. As he passed the bedroom door, Frank yells "Did it start?" and Steve says "Yeah Frank, it started, don't worry about it" and then he turned to us and said "I'll repent later." That was hilarious. Course, Frank knew it hadn't started, you could hear that engine rev. up all the way in the house.

That car was wonderfully useful. I used to raise my homemade bread in it. When Frank would drive it to work those days, people would come over to smell the interior...mmmmmm.....smells all homey. The girls played on it, and it has also been a unique yard ornament.

Inmates frequently offered to buy it from Frank, who laughed, wanting to know how they were going to do that since they couldn't even post bail.

It was tough to watch it get taken away. It was loaded on a flat bed tow truck. Quite pitiful to look behind me and see my girls standing in the bay window with somber expressions. Hannah wanted to know what the guy would do if the car came off while he was driving away...I told her, he would probably pray.
I did fairly well, it wasn't until the truck drove off at a good clip, and even though it wasn't the caddie on its own, it was going faster than it had in over a year. It's last fast ride. That choked me up a bit, felt like another part of Frank had been stripped away, even though it wasn't really a part of him.
I came in the house to face 3 weeping girls. One on the floor in the living room, one wrapped in her woobie, and one begging to be picked up.  So we all had a grand cuddle in my chair, a good cry and prayer. Our God is good. Even through this, He will be with us.

We will plant a small memorial garden in the place where the car had been for so long. 

The girls did take the license plate- they cleaned it, and want to keep it. Sure, go ahead.
The request now, is that I would design and build a wooden play area , shaped liked the Caddie. Hmmmm......

I get Heather & Jacob in a couple hours. Please pray for Heather. When I spoke to her this morning, she was feeling nauseous and miserable- not sure whether it was from car sickness or an illness of some kind.

Off to fiddle around a bit on the computer. Need some down time.
~Kate