To completely understand my relationship with this lady, you first need to read this story: https://angorachronicles.com/2022/12/10/pecan-pralines-the-sugary-kind-not-the-gooey-ones/

One day I got a call from this lady. She wanted me to keep a lookout for a certain car. Her husband, Wayne’s little pickup had been hauled away, a total loss, after the big wreck that killed him. (I don’t think he died immediately, but soon thereafter from the injuries) Her old car hadn’t been very dependable and now without the little Ford Ranger pickup for a backup, she was going to need to replace it. I had gone by a couple of times to help her start it, even taking a new battery and put it in. But she was pretty sure that it was going to continue to give her problems, so it must go. It was a dark blue Saturn Station Wagon.

She told me what car she was looking to buy, she even told me down to the color that she wanted. it needed to be a couple of years old, but with low miles and it needed to be Saturn Station Wagon. A gold Saturn Station Wagon.

Another Saturn is what Wayne was going to buy her for her next car so she knew that was what she had to have. I read up on Saturn Cars and they didn’t have the best reviews, but when Mary Jean decided something it wasn’t likely that I or anyone else would change her mind.

Even though I was hesitant on the Saturn idea, I got on the internet and found her a gold colored Saturn Wagon just like she described. It was up in Killeen. I asked her if she wanted me to take her up there to test drive it. Nope, she would be fine letting me test drive it for her. So I pulled out and drove up to Killeen to check out the car. I took it on a test drive and it drive really good and was very low mileage so I pushed for the best deal possible. There wasn’t a trade in, because she had someone in town that was going to buy her existing car.

I came on back to Bertram and talked it over with her and gave her my word that I thought it was a good car for her. So she decided to buy it. “Mary Jean when do you want to go get it?”

She said “I really don’t like going off that far, would you mind going up there and bring it back for me?”

I told her I would find someone to ride up there with me to bring it back. I called back to the salesman and got the exact price so she could send a check with me. I told her I’d go the next day and get it. In Mary Jean fashion she said “would you mind driving it back, I don’t want just anyone driving my new car?”

I found it all humorous, that she ended up getting everything on her terms, but that was the way she was. I took one of my guys with me to get the car and then had him drive it back to my house. Then I took it over to her, rolling up with me behind the wheel.

Luckily that little wagon never missed a beat. I was sure that I’d never hear the end of it if it so much as had a flat tire. She drove it until it was time for her to move over to the nursing home. It stayed underneath the car port, collecting dust until sometime after she passed away. Eventually it was sold, along with her house and that chapter of the book was closed.

Bless her heart, she was so set in her ways but you know, I really had a fondness for Mary Jean.