This is the story of a local young woman that the Carolina Classic Corvette Club has met ,befriended and decided to help finish her father’s dream. Like our very own club that began off the Corvetteforum that is where we first met Misty. Below is her story, and our quest to help her. To see more pictures and details please look in the C3 General Discussion Section of the Corvetteforum or follow our sub links here.
August 22, 2012 at 7:50 p.m,” I received a phone call from my brother. I knew right away that something was wrong. The first words out of his mouth were, have you heard yet? After an hour of pure chaos in my mind I realized that it wasn’t a bad dream and that my Daddy’s time here on earth had come to a sudden end. He had an accident on his scooter and passed suddenly. He died doing what he loved doing the most, living free.”
My name is Misty, divorced mother of two Noah and Olivia. My son is 14 and blind and my daughter is 7. Noah is quite an interesting individual yet he is full of energy and he always brought me total and complete joy. Olivia, well she is my princess and she too amazes me. I am currently registered as a fulltime student and I work two part time jobs to make ends meet.
As a kid I grew up in the country, Newton, N.C to be exact. When I wasn’t in school I spent half of my days playing in the creek, hunting crawdads, while my daddy dug it out. We called it “The swimming hole”. The other half of my time was spent in his garage being his little handy gal. My daddy passed his fiddling interests to me as I learned how to take things apart, fix them, and put them back together in that garage. A daddy’s girl I was and will always be every bit of that!
My dad died at such a young age. Over the last few years of his life he had been battling a few diseases some of which were alcoholism, COPD, depression, and diabetes. This sickness interfered in a lot of my daddy’s projects, as he couldn’t get around as good as he use to before he got sick. My dad was a true friend to many and would help anyone out. A complete stranger would be his new best friend. He was a jack of all trades and often got sidetracked by helping out others. At only 61 he had lots of living left in him. He had all kinds of vehicles around the garage just as he did as I was growing up. A 1968 Triumph Spitfire was one of many he had left from when I was a little girl. I always loved that car! My Daddy always said “Sissy, one day I will get it fixed up for you”. My Dad always had big hopes and a thousand plans.
A few years back my dad’s longtime dream and love for having a loud muscle car came true. He traded his long time John Deer tractor, the one used to dig out the creeks, for his first Corvette, a 1974. That was his first baby. He put that car in the shop and had it restored. During the time of the restoration he found another Corvette, the 1975. He bought this car off of a guy that he met at Rick’s Corvettes for $2,500.00. His first intention for this car was to fix it up and sell it. He called it his “money car”. As he put the work in on this car himself he fell in love with it as well. His plans changed from fixing it up and selling it to keeping it and turning it into his “race car”. Unfortunately, he was never able to finish what he started, but this time it wasn’t due to being sidetracked.
At the time of my dad’s passing he didn’t have a will or any life insurance. My brother and I had to sell the majority of his things to pay for his funeral and bills. If he had two of anything my brother got one and I got the other. I ended up with the 75 Corvette and I set out to finishing what my dad’s plans were and live out his legacy with the hopes of one day driving his “Muscle Car” around as he wanted to eventually do. With the help from the Carolina Classic Corvettes Club and Gary of VettePros my dream has become more reachable every day. It is so good to know that there are still several good and kind people that not only help one another out but are also just good down to earth individuals with good hearts.
If anyone would like to donate a used part for the 1975 Corvette or donate a part that can be sold plesase drop it off at VettePros located at 4000 Sam Wilson Road of Charlotte, NC. 28214. Phone Gary at 704-320-0073. You can also make a small cash donation and contact Gary McQueen of VettePros thru email at gary@vettepros.com Currently we are in need of a set of wheels, tires, rearend, painting materials, tune up misc plugs, wires, filters, belts , hoses, auto interior dye, screw kit for 75, Windshield header molding, and lots of elbow grease when we start sanding.
Thank you kindly, Misty and the CCC Group
As of 3/15/13- The rear end is being rebuilt, interior is guted, carpet cleaned, interior pieces all set and ready to be painted, interior paint and dye purchased, screw kit purchased. Richard Thomas