"Bessie"

Judah loves Bessie.

Bessie is our little silver Nissan Altima. She's the car I bought before Daniel and I got engaged, the car we had shipped to Alaska, drove from Alaska down to North Dakota, to Texas and back to North Dakota again, and finally Vermont. She's the reason Daniel changed from a Honda only man to a loyal Nissan driver.

About a year ago the transmission went, so she was retired to the side of the house while we figured out what to do. To keep or not to keep - to keep meant fixing, fixing meant a lot of money being spent. We ignored the problem for a long time, but recently talked with our landlords about who they went through to fix a transmission on one of their cars. Transmission work is rife with ways to get ripped off. Word of mouth is good.

We took Bessie in and a lot of money was the consensus. Surprise! We talked it over and over eventually deciding to go for it. It was better and cheaper than buying a new car for Daniel. I love having Bessie back, she's such a good car - we've only had to ever do a muffler on her - other than the recent transmission. Pretty good for a 1995, I say. Plus, the memories she holds for us are dear; if cars could talk..... I just couldn't bear to see her carted off to a junk yard. I'm so sentimental about my Bessie.