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Every Little Thing, By April Jeppson

Amongst all the heavy chaos in the world right now, we also had a small personal struggle. My husband’s car finally bit the dust. If you’ve been a reader of my column, you may be familiar with his majestic ride. It’s a 1996 Chevy Cavalier, a perfect shade of raspberry with a heavy dash of rust — like I said, majestic.

A little backstory for those of you who are unfamiliar. While just weeks away from moving from Iowa to here, Brian’s car was totaled by a semi. Thus, leaving our family of four with just one car. We moved to Albert Lea and were a one-car family for a year. Brian’s family has passed around this Cavalier for years, possibly since it’s inception. Brian’s brother bought it for $1 from another sibling, so he offered to sell it to us for 25 cents; we just had to go get it from someone’s back forty up in Fargo. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure if that sweet ride was going to make it all the way back, but it did.

About every six months, the car wouldn’t start for one reason or another, and I’d be reminded that at any moment we’d have to find an alternative means of transportation. At the time the raspberry showed up, we were a one-income family and simply didn’t have the means to buy a second vehicle. Having this bonus ride was more of a convenience, not a necessity. It allowed me to not have to wake up the kids every day to drive their father to work, and it also meant that I wasn’t trapped at home with little kids in the event there was an emergency. At this time, a spontaneous play date at a park was also coded as an emergency — being a stay at home parent with littles is hard. 

Every year when we’d do our taxes I’d think, OK we need to put some of this aside for a down payment for a new car for Brian. Well then our water heater went out. Then my car got totaled, and I needed a new van. Then we had some doctors bills we had to catch up, then we had to repair our roof. Year after year there was always something that took precedence, and year after year we kept driving the raspberry.

We are now a two-income family. We are finally at a place where we can make a home repair and pay all our bills on time. If you’ve been there, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Not going to lie, it feels good to finally be out of that stage of our life. So this week when the raspberry died, we knew that we could officially lay it to rest. We didn’t need to put another $300 into it, try and jimmy it or barter with a friend to help us repair it. We utilized our frequently used tow insurance for the last time and hauled it away. It was bittersweet. The car that was suppose to tide us over for a year until we found something better, ended up being the ride that got us through eight years of adventures.

As I continue to support local and give shoutouts whenever I can, I really need to give props to Pegi at Accentra Credit Union and Nick from the Trading Post. Being that you can’t go into a financial institution right now, she was able to do everything over phone and email. Surprisingly slick. This is the first time I’d been out to the Trading Post, but it won’t be my last. He was friendly, had a great selection of vehicles and at no time did I feel like he was trying to swindle me. Hands down the best car-buying experience I’ve ever had. Oh I almost forgot, our new ride is a bright blue, so we’ve lovingly named it the blueberry.

Albert Lean April Jeppson is a wife, mom, coach and encourager of dreams.