It’s a miracle! Rosie’s ride just like new

It’s a rosy ending for the tale of the trashed 1979 Ford Fairmont station wagon.

“I’ll tell you, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” says 90-year-old Rosie Buck of her reaction when she picked up her refurbished ride the other day. “I couldn’t believe it was real. It looks better now than it did new.”

She’s not kidding. Rosie’s jalopy has had more cosmetic work than Cher’s mug.

Gone are the scrapes and scars that were inflicted last May when a pack of underage rats snatched Rosie’s wagon and took it on a demolition joyride.

The car now sparkles from a new paint job. The interior has been cleaned and shined. Nobody would guess that this vehicle has clocked 150,000 miles.

As a colleague who saw the wagon observed, “As far as brown Fairmonts go – I’d give it a 10.”

To recap the story: Rosie is the Spokane senior citizen who became a crime victim twice on the same afternoon.

One of the delinquents grabbed her purse from the front seat while she was changing the oil filter. They later used the keys from the purse to take her car.

The cops nabbed the delinquents within 24 hours, but by then the denting was done.

Rosie was heartbroken. Rare is the motor-head who would include the Ford Fairmont station wagon on a dream car wish list. But to Rosie it was special.

“I bought it new 27 years ago in October,” she says, adding humorously, “I didn’t know I was gonna live this long.”

This woman could teach a course on self-reliance. She lives alone in a North Side apartment she keeps spotless. She performs all the routine maintenance on her car like changing the oil at the first signs of corruption.

Rosie, who turns 91 in October, bubbles with an age-defying energy.

“You can see by my hands I haven’t been sleeping,” she says, holding them palms up for inspection. “I just live my own life. I never get any help from anybody. I’ve always been independent.”

But on a fixed income, Rosie didn’t have the dough to cover the $2,800-plus repair bill. Buying a new car was equally out of the question.

Telling her story last month yielded more than a few generous offers. But a North Side couple who want to remain anonymous volunteered to pick up the entire tab for the Fairmont’s restoration.

Credit the staff of Ed’s Premier Auto Body, 2707 E. Francis, for going way above and beyond to bring the luster back to Rosie’s ride.

“We were gonna put flames on it, but we didn’t think she’d like that,” says Jason Keen, the shop’s manager who spent hours pulling Fairmont parts from junkers he found in an auto graveyard.

This summer has been a circus for Rosie.

Three of the thieves have pleaded guilty. They received sentences based on their role in what happened. At each proceeding Rosie has gone to juvenile court to make the youngsters face her.

Two of them said they were sorry, she says, adding that the unapologetic culprit wouldn’t even look her in the eyes. The fourth and final member of the bunch will appear in court in the near future.

Rosie believes what they did can be blamed on parents not taking an interest in their children.

She believes the teenagers could benefit from the old-fashioned virtues of hard work. She tells stories of how she had to rise before dawn to milk cows before heading off to school.

On Wednesday I rode shotgun while Rosie took me for a spin in her revitalized rig. She is filled with appreciation for those who helped get her wagon back on the road. Rosie is steady behind the wheel. She is not one of those befuddled elderly drivers that everybody talks about.

“I can get in anybody’s car or tractor and I can drive it,” she tells me, adding that she learned to drive on a neighbor’s Model T pickup.

“And I want you to know,” Rosie suddenly laughs, “I still got my teeth.”