Goodbye To Elfie

My mother, at the age of 80, has decided to stop driving. She is increasingly anxious about - well most things really - struggles to pull herself up out of a chair, never mind the awkward sideways manoeuvre required to get in and out of the driving seat, and in addition suffers from chronic vertigo. All in all driving has become a worry to her, and she has driven no further than the supermarket or the station (to pick me or other visitors up) for some time, and looking after the car and its admin have been giving her headaches too, as she is inclined to get paperwork in a muddle these days. She has very generously decided to give the car to me, as she did its five years older sister Elfie (reg plate is LFE, and the name just stuck) when we moved up here six years ago. I am eternally grateful, as, in my circumstances both then and now, purchasing a car would have put a huge strain on our resources.

Wondering what to do with Elfie, now 12 years old and a tad rusty after being regularly deluged with sand and grit for five winters parked outside our previous house, but still running like a (slightly elderly) bird, I visited various 'free valuation for your car' websites, and received astonishingly contradictory quotes, and an unwelcome sequence of emails inviting me to sell my car to We Buy Any Car for a pitiful sum... Then my best friend J's car died. Really died. Had to be towed away to the breaker's yard, though she had hoped to nurse it through til June when its MOT expired. So, guess what? I'm selling Elfie to J, for what is hopefully a fair sum, based on guidance from her brother who knows about 'motors'. A good deal more than Pushy Motors' offer anyway, and a welcome boost to the exchequer at this moment. Being desperate to claim Elfie at the first possible moment, as she needs transport to get to work, J is now going down south tomorrow to collect my new car from my mother for me (which I wasn't able do for various reasons until May). Weird. J has met my mother, but not for at least 10 years... They will probably spend half an hour together, drinking tea, and then off J will drive to the M1 in her car. On Sunday she'll bring said car up here for me, and drive off in Elfie.

Elfie was my first car, which is probably why I am struggling a bit to let her go, as well as the fact she has a 1.6L engine and is a lovely purply blue colour. I've loved her, and for me she's represented independence and adulthood and freedom, and all the things no doubt cars entirely predictably do represent to people. I realise that sentimentality about cars needs to be kept in perspective. Nonetheless I shall be sad when I lock her up this evening for the last time after going to collect L from the station, and when I hand the keys to J on Sunday. The new car will no doubt serve me well too and I'll come to terms with the fact that it's silver just like every second car on the road these days!!