Farewell, Faithful Road Pony

I will never love a car as much as I loved this one.

My 2014 Nissan Juke is being traded in today.

Please don’t think I’m crazy, but I am bereft over losing the tough and sporty girl who was my “ride or die” during the most tumultuous decade of my life.

I bought the Juke when my husband was dying of brain cancer 10 years ago. In the uncertain final days of his life, his family and I brainstormed on how we could get him from our home in Atlanta back to the Native American reservation in New Mexico where he was from.

His Pueblo tribe, like most Indigenous peoples, have death rituals going back centuries. Tried and true, everyone knows what to do when someone passes into spirit. They spring into action and come together to honor, prepare, and bury their own.