I'm filling out divorce paperwork. I know a lot about my financial state right now. I know it's going to get tighter after the divorce, so I took my car in to have the tie rod end repaired that they've been bugging me about for two years. They said it would take half a day and cost about $250. Fine, good, I can do that.
They called me at 5:30, after they were meant to be closed, but were just finishing up. The lady told me that they had fixed it and it was driveable, but not safe to drive more than just to my home. She said there was a major problem with the struts that they discovered when they lifted up the car, and it would cost another $750 ish dollars to repair that, and then the back struts will need to be fixed soon. I looked up the car value today for the divorce paperwork...it's only worth about $700. I was overwhelmed. I asked if I could pick up my car and think about it. She said sure, just pay over the phone for the tie rod end and you can come get it. She put me on hold for a minute. When she came back, I was ready to pay, but I had one question.
"If you knew it had to have over $700 more repair work to be done before it was safe to drive again, why didn't you call me before fixing it? The car's only worth $700, so I will probably just have to scrap the car and get another one."
"Well actually, it's not driveable, sorry about that. It's still up on the lift and the strut has fallen off. You don't have to pay us anything yet."
"Well, can you just take it down and I'll let you know tomorrow what I want to do?"
"Sure, we can do that."
I hung up. I got ready to tell Chris I was going to have to empty our account to buy a car. I felt anxiety over losing the money we have saved for lawyers and divorce proceedings to purchase a car, but I didn't know where this string of repairs would end, and is it really worth it to pay more for repairs than a car is worth? I had my phone open to text Chris this depressing news, when my phone rang again. It was the auto shop. I felt dread, but answered. It was the owner (not the woman I had talked to).
"Hey, I wanted to tell you, the strut crumbled when we lifted it off the ground. The weight of the car was holding it down for you, so when we lifted it, it just fell off. But I wanted to do something nice for you. I wanted to just repair the strut for you, free of charge. It sucks what happened to you. You can just pay for the tie rod end like you planned. I'm going to need to keep it another day, but I'm going to put it back together for you."
I started bawling. It took me several seconds to talk through the tears.
"Thank you. You don't even know...I'm filing divorce paperwork, I didn't know what to do...my car's only worth $700, I looked it up today...I...thank you..."
"Don't cry now, you're going to make me cry."
I thanked him again, and hung up. I'm really still crying 20 minutes later. Some people are such good people.
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