Yesterday, we celebrated the life of my Dad, Steve Wedekind.

He passed away on November 24th, 2021, very unexpectedly. My Dad had a reaction to a vaccine, called Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and passed away shortly after the diagnosis.

Dad wasn’t a ‘weep at my graveside’ kind of guy, so we skipped the formal funeral and waited until the weather was warm to hold a big get-together in his honor. It was a day to share stories and memories, and it was awesome to see so many of my Dad’s friends and family laughing and having a good time even through the sadness of him being gone.

I brought my camera, but ultimately decided to keep it in my car and just be fully present (in all my awkwardness) and enjoy the time with everyone. I got to see a lot of the family that we don’t get to see enough of, old friends of my Dad’s I haven’t seen since I was a kid, and some of his coworkers that I never had a chance to meet before.

Because I didn’t take any pictures of the Celebration, I’m going to showcase one of the ways my Dad is living on in our lives instead.

When I was little, my Dad had an old Chevy truck. It was rusty and falling apart, but he loved it, and I loved riding up in the front seat with him. I would watch the road pass by under my feet in a blur, the rusted floorboards giving me a unique view of the road that was equal parts fascinating and terrifying. Most people only saw a rusty heap of junk, but Dad saw the possibility of what that truck could like with a little care and hard work.

Since then, he has had many old cars and trucks that he wanted to rebuild. Some were in better shape than others, but he always seemed to be short on time or space or parts to finish them.

So what better way to honor my Dad than to teach his grandson how to fix cars? Everett begged for a vehicle from Grandpa Steve as we cleaned out his house and garages, and with only a little arm-twisting of my husband, he is now the proud owner of his Grandpa’s 1968 Chevrolet pickup.

The rusty floorboards and dents don’t scare my son any more than they scared my Dad. He knows he just needs time and space to fix it up.  And someday, hopefully my son can take that old Chevy and drive it down the road, shiny with new paint and a solid foundation.

Here are a few pictures of the Chevy as my Dad left it; check back in ten years when Everett is sixteen to see how far Everett and Allen, get! We’ll do an awesome recreation- hopefully by then it’ll look brand new again. We may even do yearly recreations to help us keep up on the restoration, but no promises on that one!

Scroll to the last picture to see what might be my favorite portrait of all time!

My Dad wasn’t able to finish the vehicles he was restoring, but I think he would be proud to see his grandson following his passion for cars and being a mechanic.

Thank you to everyone who was there to celebrate one last time for Steve. It was an incredible day.

Thanks for reading!

~Carissa