Today I spoke to my cousin Mary and her husband Doug. First – it was great to speak to them. I can’t remember the last time I did – and it was nice to just talk and catch up on a few things. My Aunt Lottie passed away a few years back and the house was left to Mary and Doug. They live there now, and the Mustang still sits in the garage in the same place that it was perhaps since Aunt Lottie passed. The car belongs to Doug Jr. who lives up in Rhode Island. He has intended to bring it up there and restore it himself, but for the last 12 or so years, it has been sitting in the dry garage in Cape Coral, FL. To my delight, Doug and Mary described its current condition a bit – it doesn’t run, the tires are completely flat, and it’s currently used as a “work bench” in the garage…. I am smiling as I type all of this because it warms my heart to know that it is exactly where it should be – in the hands of the family.  I am trying to get pictures from them 🙂

So I put the proposal out there – that is, let me come down there and pick up the Mustang and bring it up to New Jersey so I can restore it here.

I could barely contain my excitement when she and Doug seemed more than open – actually quite willing – to let me do this. There is one tenet that I mentioned – I am adamant about doing this and then returning the finished car to either them or Doug Jr. It was always Uncle Pete’s hope and intent to leave the car to Doug, and that is where it should go in the end.

I pray for this to be a journey. I may know what to expect as far as the physical resto of the Mustang is concerned – and I have no illusions of getting any spiritual or emotional revelations from this project – but I have three main hopes – that this project will remove me from the mucky swill that I mentioned in my previous post, that I can see the project through to the end, and that I will grow from the experience.

So – where it stands now is that either Mary or Doug Jr. will call me within a fortnight, and when they do, I will post what happens. You might ask what happens if Doug Jr. wants to do this himself or if he just says no? I asked the same question, and we’ll cross that bridge when it comes. Let’s just hope that he says yes.