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A Texas man is telling the story of how he tried for two decades to buy his late grandmother’s one-of-a-kind 1968 pink Ford Mustang—and finally succeeded. In an essay for The Wall Street Journal, wealth manager Sam McGee says his father used to reminisce about the car, with its unique black-and-white houndstooth top, but he didn’t know what happened to it after she died by suicide in 1973. In 2001, he asked his grandfather about it and learned it had been purchased by a couple in Selden, Kansas. He tracked them down; they declined to sell it, but McGee would not give up. “I made it an annual tradition—every May, I called, for some 20 years,” he wrote in the Journal. “Getting this car back became a cause for my wife and me. Back in the ’60s and ’70s, there wasn’t a lot of mental-health treatment. We wanted to get the car back as a kind of living tribute.” Finally, in 2022, the couple agreed to sell and McGee and his dad drove 800 miles to pick it up. “I rebuilt the brakes and did some engine work. The car has 53,000 miles and is rust free. It drives like new and is all original, like a time capsule,” he wrote. McGee now uses the car for special family events, to promote mental health awareness events, and to boost his spirits: “When I am stressed about work or other things, I get in the car, drive it in the countryside, and feel better myself. It’s almost like she’s with me, even though I never got the chance to meet her.”
If you or a loved one are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing or texting 988.