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[Spridgets] a word to the group about Frank

To: "spridgets@autox.team.net" <spridgets@autox.team.net>
Subject: [Spridgets] a word to the group about Frank
From: "Fisher, Ed" <edwd@ti.com>
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:23:57 -0500
So here's the thing, I don't even own a Sprite, bugeye or otherwise.  I found
this list many years ago because a friend of mine had a '64 and I thought I
could gain some information on helping him restore it when it came time.  I
still don't own a Sprite, and my friend's car is still in his shop awaiting a
resurrection, yet I never left.

I'm on other car groups as I have a couple of others that require attention.
I had a 64 Mercedes for a while, that was a great group of guys.  I am active
on a Jaguar list, even had a guy send me a ECM (very expensive item) in the
mail to help me troubleshoot an ABS fault.  I guess he just trusted that I
would send it back.  That was cool.  On the Triumph list I became friends with
a great man named Fred Thomas who just recently passed.  Not only did he help
me and countless others learn the art of powder-coating he was a fine
gentleman besides, right down to always sending me a 20 dollar bill in the
mail when I would walk for Juvenile Diabetes.  That group grieved over his
loss, I still feel it.  I even kind-of met John McCartney who used to build
Triumph motor cars back in the day.  He is a wonderful man who lives across
the pond.  Then there is the Honda list for my utilitarian little Civic buddy
that I drive to work, they are a much younger crowd for the most part and it
took me a while to learn how to navigate through that without being
frustrated.  They are OK, just a little different.  So with all of that going
on, why on earth would I continue to stay on a 'Spridget' group when I am not
currently involved in working on one?  It is the people, who talk about fluifs
and stuff and then rally like crazy to go help people.

I've laughed in the background with you maniacs as you wander so far off-topic
that it borders the ridiculous, and now I've cried with you as well.  I had
contacted Frank a while back, not for car advice, not for a part, not for any
help, but simply to tell him that in witnessing his ways, perusing his
pictures, and listening to his posts my belief that mankind is basically good
was confirmed.  Instead of considering or obsessing that the world was going
to hell-in-a-handbasket by watching the news and believing the words of
others, he simply made his corner of the world better by his actions.  That
was what I wanted to tell Frank, and I did, and he was as gracious as I knew
he would be as he listened and thanked me.  We became friends, bonded by
something other than cars, yet brought together by an interest in them.  How
strange life can be sometimes.

It took me a minute to craft this message to y'all, my grief has been rather
profound as well.  I wrote to Frankie that grief is just happiness with
nowhere to go.  It takes awhile to unwind it and redirect it and celebrate the
happiness again.  I am in that process with Frank's passing, time is what I
need.  I am writing to this list now to thank you for giving me a chance to
process and actually be able to take action when I felt so isolated and so far
from New Jersey.  The emails were beautiful, but being able to sign the guest
card, contribute to the Frankie V, that beautiful grandson's fund, write to
Frankie personally, and contact the funeral home would not have been possible
had it not been for this amazing group of guys and gals that loved Frank as
did I.  For giving me that ability to express, I thank you most sincerely.
For those able to attend the funeral I really thank you, I am grateful and
appreciative that this list was so well represented; I somehow knew it would
be.  You are a fine group, one that I am glad to be a part of, even remotely.

Thank you most sincerely, and may Frank's spirit live in us all.

Ed Fisher
Dallas, Tx
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