"Before They Call, I Will Answer, While They Are Still Speaking, I Will Hear." Part Seven.

I had a call from the funeral Company, to say, “You can come and collect Eric’s ashes, when you are ready, you will need photo ID, please let us know before hand who that person will be.” Garry went and got Eric.

We all grew up near a small park, so it was agreed that is where we would sprinkle him.

I asked, “Who would like to come with me?” Garry and his younger sister both said, “We will be there.” The time that we had arranged was 07.30am on a Saturday morning. I had brought £10 with me, so that I would give them, £5 each for that to go towards either their petrol or for their takeaway breakfast.

His younger sister, she had forgotten, so Garry and myself walked over, the beautiful grounds of the small park, we had forgotten just how lovely it was, it brought back happy memories, of our childhood, that we had all spent many happy Summers there as children.

When we arrived at the large pond, as I filmed, Garry poured Eric into the lush shrubbery that was near the pond. It was surreal, to say the least. When he was done, we stood there for a moment in our own private, quite thoughts. Then after, we started off, back across the lush, unspoilt grass.

Just before we got to the gates of the park, I stopped and said to Garry, “I want you to have this £5 it is either towards your petrol or get some breakfast,” He said, “I am OK, I don’t need it,” But I insisted, and said, “If you hadn’t been here, I would have been on my own, please take it,” So, he took it and  I said, “You can have your sister’s too.” I was more than happy to give him the £10.

My car that had failed its MOT, it was sold as scrap, and taken away by a scrap Company and with the £5,000 from Eric, I had then bought a large 7-seater car.

Eight months after, the little car was sold for scrap, I had a letter from the Bailiffs, to say, “For your traffic offence, you need to pay £80.”

I wrote back on their letter, and informed them, “I don’t have that car, it was sold as scrap.” The Bailiffs, then sent me a letter every week, they sent me texts every week, and rang me often each week. I would write back, and let them know, “I don’t have that car, it is scrapped.” It made no difference at all, they said, “This will affect your credit score.” Even more letters, texts and phone calls came to me, it was very unsettling. Then the threats that, “We will take you to court to get this money.” The money went up, I was very close to just giving them the money, so that they would leave me alone.

When I rang them up, which was a high premium number, I asked, “What is the offence?” I was informed, “We can’t tell you.” I told DVLA, but they said, “Its not our problem, it is nothing to do with us.” Many months went by of this grief and one day as a last resort, as I had tried every other avenue, I rang the Company that had come and collected the little scrapped car.

The woman, on the other end of the phone listened to me and said, after she had looked at her computer, “Write this down, tell the Bailiffs, the car, was picked up by OUR Company, and it was taken to Auction, and at the Auction we sold on December the 13th.” She went on, “The person who bought the car, is the one who has committed the traffic offence!” She was livid, that I had been hounded like that. I could not thank your enough, I felt like finally I had turned a corner, and someone had finally listened to me, for until then, no one had, it was beyond frustrating.

I put all the information in writing to the Bailiffs and again sent the letter, registered signed for, then finally all the letters, texts and phone calls stopped.

I had many years of happiness with my 7-seater car, for car boots it was great, and for taking rubbish to the Tip, our local recycling centre. The car started first time, every time and it never once broke down. I had a flat tyre, in November or October last year and my breakdown cover, sorted that.

In December, it went for its yearly MOT and failed! The engineer informed me, of the small family run business, “The welding alone will cost about £400 and it might not last the year, it is not guaranteed, and the rest of the repairs to get it back on the road to pass the MOT in total it could all come to £800.” I said, “I don’t have that kind of money.” I didn’t know what to do, so I said to Grace who works at the reception, of the garage, “Spending £800 would still work out cheaper than buying a new car,” She said, “That is true,” I said, “With my Mum who lives miles away, it is my turn to be with her over Christmas for five days, it would cost me a small fortune in taxis, to get to hers there and back each day.” Grace agreed.

My mind was all in a whirl, what was I going to do? It would take me hours to get there on the bus and with Sunday hours, they would start late and finish early, so that I wouldn’t be able to get home safely. It was like a nightmare.

Five minutes after I put the phone down to Grace, she rang me back and said, “We have been talking about you, there is a car here, that is for sale, if you like it, you can buy it for £350.00 it is due for its MOT at the end of January, the engineers have done the MOT on this car for years, it is 4 years older than your car.” I said, relieved, “I am very interested in it,” Grace said, “Come and have a look at in when you are ready.”

Time was of the essence, as Christmas was soon, I went with Paul to have a look at it, and it was perfect! It looked newer than my failed car, it was in fantastic condition and spotless on the inside.

The next day was pay day, and as planned, I went with my £350.00 and Grace sat with me, as I drove around the area, this was at my request. I always feel like, it is my first driving lesson, whenever I get a new car! It is the strangest thing. Then after 15 minutes of driving, I am fine, I then dropped of Grace back at the garage and I took my shiny new car home.

Everything, had happened SO quickly. I remembered when I sat down, with my new car outside the house, that very famous verse from the Bible came to me, “Before they call, I will answer, while they are still speaking, I will hear.” Isaiah Chapter 65 verse 24.