LAST CAR RUNNING

Synopsis

Stan Vrabel won the Kessel County Fair demolition derby nine times. Bonnie watched every one from the same spot in the grandstand, holding his thermos. In March he died with his tenth car half built in the barn. Their sons want to sell it for scrap. Bonnie wants to finish it. She has never welded, the car has no reverse, and the only help she can find is the neighbor's sixteen year old, who has watched a lot of videos. In August she pulls into the pit wearing Stan's helmet. The other drivers all came to the funeral. Not one of them is planning to take it easy on her.

Who this is about

Bonnie Vrabel is fifty-eight, keeps the books for the township, and spent thirty summers in the fair grandstand watching her husband Stan win the demolition derby nine times.

What goes wrong

Stan dies in March with his last car half built in the barn, and Bonnie decides, to the open dismay of every man in the pit, to finish it and drive it herself.

What's at stake

Her grown sons think it is grief talking and want the car sold. If she wrecks out in the first heat, she proves them right in front of the whole county.

Why it keeps going

Four months to learn to weld, a car with no reverse gear, a pit crew of one teenage neighbor, and a field of drivers who knew Stan and will not go easy.

Takeaway

Grief can be a reason to quit or a reason to finish, and only the person carrying it gets to pick which.

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