Deep Dish Detour

Apparently, God Has a Used-Car Department.

After brain surgery, I discovered that losing the ability to drive for three months doesn’t mean you stop going places.

It just means your wife becomes your full-time chauffeur.

And Linda was putting in some serious overtime.

Between medical appointments, pharmacies, work, and the ordinary errands of life, she sometimes spent six hours a day navigating traffic. She wasn’t particularly fond of driving in the first place, so this was hardly the relaxing recovery plan either of us had envisioned.

Then we rented a Tesla for three days. And something remarkable happened.

The car didn’t cure my cancer. It didn’t eliminate the appointments. But with Linda supervising its self-driving technology, getting from place to place suddenly became dramatically less stressful.

She wanted to keep that experience going.

And I wanted that for her.

Unfortunately, buying a new Tesla meant waiting three or four months and spending considerably more than we’d hoped.

We reluctantly gave up on the idea.

Until the next morning.

There it was. Right at the top of the list. The only one.

A nearly new, fully loaded Tesla. The exact model and color we’d wanted. Right down the street.

And about $20,000 less than buying new.

If there had been a “Buy It Now” button, I would have pushed it immediately.

Instead, I wondered, This is too perfect. Could this actually be real?

But the dealership confirmed everything. The car was real, the price was real, and someone from out of state was already trying to buy it.

Fortunately, the dealership preferred a local buyer.

Then came the salesman.

He called, rearranged an appointment, and went out of his way to help me get there. Remember, I couldn’t drive, and Linda was at work with the checkbook!

He even came and picked me up, offering to drive me to the bank as well.

Somewhere between the car, the paperwork, and conversations about family and life, this stopped feeling like a typical car-buying experience.

No pressure. Just a guy going well beyond what he needed to do to help another person.

About eight hours after discovering the listing, and just four hours after the dealership opened, the Tesla was on its way to its new home.

The whole experience felt almost like spending time with family. And somehow, they even threw in a Tesla charger worth around $300!

Linda got some much-needed relief from the stress of driving, and I regained a little freedom to get around.

But perhaps the best part was meeting another extraordinary person who reminded us that kindness can turn an ordinary transaction into something much bigger.

I’d met one of those rare “call me if you need anything” people. The kind who actually means it.

And in this case, my own Buy It Now angel.

Some might see another series of fortunate coincidences.

I see the Great Author at work again.

Apparently, He really does own the cattle on a thousand hills.

And at least one used Tesla.