The Joy of Giving

Funny story — well I got a good laugh!

Most of my followers know I’m about to set off in a couple of months to explore this beautiful country I live in.

As a result, I’ve had to buy a new car. One that has the capacity to tow the off-road caravan I have ordered.

This left me wondering what to do with my Honda Accord Sports that I absolutely love. This car has been extremely good to me. It’s a 2009 model and I purchased it in 2012, when it only had 15,000 kilometres on the clock. Today she’s only done 65,000 kilometres in her lifetime.

So, she may be almost 15 years old but she’s still got a lot of life in her.

When I purchased her 12 years ago, my son and I did the rounds of the local car yards looking for the perfect car. Unbeknownst to my son, I was looking for a car that I could then gift to him for his 18th birthday, which was only months away.

However, we found the Honda Accord instead and as it was three times the price of what I was prepared to pay for a car for my son — you know what teenage boys are like! — I wasn’t going to buy it. My son saw how much I loved it and talked me into purchasing her. His words, “Mum, buy it, you never spend any money on yourself.”

And from those words, I ended up the proud owner of this beautiful piece of machinery and my son had unknowingly talked himself out of a car.

So here we are, twelve years later, and I took the Honda Accord in to be serviced on Tuesday and Wednesday I had it professionally detailed; inside and out. She scrubbed up like she was brand new — she absolutely sparkled.

My son believed I was doing all this to be able to take photos this weekend, believing I intended to put her up for auction next week.

She scrubbed up so good, that I said to my son on Wednesday, that I was going to be so sad to see her go. He responded he couldn’t let her go — he has always loved her and drove it any chance he could — and asked me if I would accept $15,000 for her. I replied that I’d not accept that much from him but offered it to him at $10,000.

He argued that he’d feel bad if I gave him that big a discount, so we met halfway and agreed on $12,000.

Wednesday night I showed him how to apply for a loan online. He filled everything in to borrow $12,000 and it was approved instantly.

He was so excited that he wanted to sign the loan documents straight away but I told him I wanted to look over the documents first and I was just too tired to do so that night.

Thursday morning come around and it was my son’s birthday. I gave him a box wrapped in colourful paper and he carefully opened it, while stating that he couldn’t imagine what was in such a small package.

As he opened the box, he gasped in shock, unearthing the keys to the Honda Accord.

He looked at me and uttered, “No way Mum, you can’t do that.”

I said I could as the car was always meant to be his. I said when I purchased it 12 years ago I was looking for a car to give him for his 18th birthday. When he talked me into buying myself such a nice car, he actually talked himself out of a car.

So in theory, I said I’d just been borrowing his car for the last 12 years.

He asked me why I let him go through applying for the loan last night.

“Why’d you let me go through all that?”

I responded that I did so because it was a good experience for him and now he can let the bank know he no longer needs the loan.

Happy birthday darling boy!

Please click the link below my name to read more of my work. I would also like to thank you for taking the time to read this today and for all your support.

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Originally published on Medium