For
the Love of Effie
My
name is Brett Vollmer and I own a 1965
VW Variant. This car was originally
purchased in Germany by a US Army Airman
while on tour. He brought the car home
with him to California and sold it to
my Great Grandmother Effie Serrano in
1966. She kept immaculate records while
she racked up 492,000 miles on it, including
the mileage and costs for all five engine
rebuilds.One
trip of note was a day in 1985 when
she drove my mother to the hospital
when she went into labor with me. In
1993, she parked the car on her daughter's
property where it sat for 25 years.
Effie died when I was in high school,
and at that time, I was quite close
with her, which was a bit odd because
she really didn't have much of an affinity
for children.
Cut
to 2018, my wife, Anna was pregnant
with our third baby. At her 12 week
appointment, we named her Effie after
my great grandmother when we found out
that she was a girl. Sadly, at 20 weeks,
Effie was diagnosed with Triploidy,
a terminal illness that caused her to
be stillborn at 30 weeks. Shortly thereafter,
I asked my father, Mike if I could restore
Effie's VW in memory of the two of them.
He obliged and helped me dislodge it
from the ground where it had spent the
last 25 years sinking beneath an oak
tree. 18 months later, the car is back
on the road, fully restored, and repainted
in the color of Triploidy awareness.
Within days of finishing, we even won
a special appreciation award at the
Gary Sinise Foundation car show at the
San Diego Balboa Medical Center, which
was where we delivered baby Effie.
Brett
Vollmer
