When I met Ailish, she had a 2006 Acura RSX. She described it at the time as a “Poor financial decision, but I love it.” I remember her paying about $1000/month on car payments, but thinking about it now, that seems beyond reasonable; it surely must have been less. At the time, Ailish lived downtown and walked to work pretty much every day. She only really used the RSX to drive to visit me or head out to Medicine Hat to see her family.

By the middle of October, two months after first meeting me, she had sold it and picked up a 2000 Honda Civic instead. Ailish was able to pretty much trade it straight across, getting rid of a monthly car payment. I remember how proud she was of her new-found financial sense, and how disappointed she was not to have the sporty RSX any more.

After Ailish died, the Civic sat unused at the back of the house. For the first three months or so, I had no choice. Until the paperwork came through, I couldn’t stop paying Ailish’s insurance, let alone sell the vehicle. And every time I saw it, I thought maybe Ailish had come home early. :(

I tried to sell the Civic in October. I even had a guy shake on the deal, but it fell apart when he discovered it was a holiday and the banks were closed. And it took me until this weekend to get around to putting it back up on kijiji.ca. This afternoon, someone named Erik came by to check it out. We signed the paperwork and I accepted a deposit; Erik is coming by with the remainder of the cash tomorrow.

I will be sad to see it go. That Civic was incredibly reliable (unless there was snow on the ground), and much as Ailish missed her RSX, she grew to love the little Honda.