The very long goodbye

Today, 20 months after it was last taken for a spin, and certainly 2 years since its owner last rode it, I sold David's motorbike.

A trader looked it over and offered me a price. I thought of haggling, then thought of the personal cost, financial and emotional, to go through the hoops of a private and more lucrative sale.
With tears welling up, and my voice beginning to choke, I stuck out my hand and shook on his first offer.
Deal.

And so into the sunset goes another vehicle with a key saga. This was the third in a row, so hopefully I can put them behind me.
The saga #3....
The motorbike was bought and transferred down from Queensland with only one key. Having already lost a key for one of the cars (saga #1), David was worried about losing the key for his motorbike. So he took the key to the bike shop to buy a blank, then planned to head to a key cutter. Whilst on the bike shop, he spied some great trousers and tried them on. And ... you guessed it, when he arrived at the key cutter, the original was no longer to be found - anywhere!
He ended up swapping out the whole key barrel and the new keys were carefully stored. As he got weaker, using hand tools was beyond him, and the thought of the incomplete bike with headlamp still to be reinstated made him quite agitated and distressed.
That's when his mates from right across the country stepped in and fixed it in 15mins. That's when they took it for a spin.

God bless those blokes. They found their friend, who had avoided telling them about how desperately ill he was, reaching the very end of life, and they showed their love in fixing bikes, making music, and taking him for a coffee and custard slice. Which turned out to be his last meal.

I will forever be in their debt.

So, life goes on, but today was saying goodbye to one more aspect of my husband.