My Heart Hurts for Him

About 7 or 8 years ago Ron gets this wild idea that he is going to build an airplane. He had grand visions of him and I flying off on the weekends and enjoying the country at our fingertips. There was just one little problem with this idea and that's the fact that there was no way in Hell that I was actually going to get into this plane.

I know that Ron thought he would be able to talk me into eventually and he ordered the parts and started work. We had an understanding that if he was actually going to fly this thing he had to have lots of life insurance on himself. My thoughts were if I was going to be a widow, I was going to be a rich widow, so the insurance was purchased and the building continued. Ron had thousands of hours into the plane and it slowly grew in our garage.



He would have anybody that offered help him with the riveting and whatnot. The noise was incredible sometimes but he was always so happy. This continued for about 5 years and then almost two years ago, just before his back surgery, he informs me that he was going to sell the plane. This came totally out of left field and caught me completely by surprise. Mind you, I was jumping for joy on the inside, but I knew this was a huge sacrifice on his part and the end of a dream. Ron had come to a point in the building process where it was going to get really expensive. He needed to start buying the electronics and the engine. There was just no way we were going to be able to afford to do that any time soon, so onto an aviation web site it went.

In just a matter of days, it sold and for full asking price. A guy that lived not even a mile from us came over and gave him cash and it was soon gone from our garage. Ron was sooooo sad for so long. It's sad to say, but it was a good thing he was having such major surgery so soon as it got his mind off of the plane.

It's been almost two years and yesterday Ron got an email from the guy who bought it. The plane is finished and he wanted to share with Ron how nice it turned out. The buyer had the funds to finish the plane exactly how Ron dreamed it would be but would have never had to money to do like that. I know it brought all those feelings to the surface again and Ron was just so sad yesterday.

Even I have to admit how pretty it turned out. It's amazing what about $150,000 can do for something! Ron is still chatting with the new owner and once he has his mandatory 40 hours in the plane he is going to take Ron for a ride. I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not, but at least we still have the insurance.