The demise of his beautiful car

Monday – 23/2/2009

I woke up this morning with a big smile on my face, looking forwards to having a happy moment in my life. The very first thing I did after my breakfast of a bowl of honey crunch cornflake was to call Anthony, the car dealer, telling him that I was going to collect the car today.

At 1pm, there I was on time at Carrol and Kinsella Motor Ltd, in Walkinstown Road to finalise the ownership of Toyota Auris 2007. After signing few papers and arranging the insurance, I was officially a proud owner of a beautiful car. It was dark blue in color, a hatchback with 3 doors, spacey inside with 16” alloy wheel. Zoom....I was off to work.

Tuesday – 24/2/2009

I was still the owner of the car. I was so excited driving it, passing through a heavy traffic in city centre to go to work which was about 1 hour away. I said to myself repeatedly ‘Eventually, I manage to own a proper car’. It had a stylish interior design with a good-looking exterior. I couldn’t be happier....

On arrival to my work-place, I found out that there would be a football match later that night in a stadium just beside the hospital where I was working at. As a result, I had some difficulty to find a space to park my car as the football fans started to arrive. Finally I found a small parking space behind an army reserved building about 300m away from the hospital.

It was a busy night at work that night. I could not remember how many broken bones or dislocated joints I saw. Nor do I remember how many patients I spoke to with trivial problems. Understandably, at the end of my shift, which was at midnight, I was exhausted, looking forwards again to being in my new car to enjoy the comfortable seat it provided, to drive with its powerful engine, to listen to my favourite radio-station Spin 108 which sound came from its 6 brilliant speakers.

After saying goodbyes and thank you to the night staff, I bravely walked through the cold night to my new beautiful car, slightly perturbed by the eerie sight of the graveyard beside the hospital. About 5 meters away from the car which behind was facing me, I used the remote control to unlock the car. To my surprise, it didn’t work. I thought, ‘Damned! I forgot to lock the car. I was hoping nobody had stolen anything from the car. There was an umbrella, a phone charger and a FM transmitter for my ipod touch for them to steal.

Walking closer to the car, with the help of dimmed lights from the nearby building, I noticed the back window was broken. ‘Oh! No! This is not happening!”, losing hope that the £90 FM transmitter would still be there. I quickened my pace to see the real damage. The very second I stepped beside the car, I was frozen, not by the chilling night, but by the appearance of my beautiful car which was not so beautiful anymore. I was so shocked by the unpleasant sight of the car. Nothing left inside. Literally, nothing! All gone! It was burnt out! The smell of it was nauseating.

The very moment I realised what my car had become, I was momentarily speechless, didn’t know what to do with so much mixed emotion inside. I was so upset that I wanted to cry my eyes out, I was so angry that if it was not a freezing night, there would be fire came out of my ears. I wanted to shout out loud to break the windows of the houses in neighbourhood as I believed whoever did it was/were from the area.

It was 12 midnight, in freezing cold, in semi darkness I was alone with a cemetery nearby, facing the leftover of my not-so-attractive-looking-now car. The first person I called was Andrew. With my cracking voice, nearly into tears, I explained to him briefly of my finding to his shock. Kindly, he agreed to fetch me. Poor sod, he had to go to his parents’ house to borrow his sister’s Mini Cooper to come to Drogheda.

Next, I called the gardai who shortly arrived to the hospital for me to make the police report. That night, I was informed by one of them of what exactly had happened to my car. Apparently, around 10 pm that night, after the football match, there was a small riot. Some of the yobs, smashed the windows of my car, threw in petrol and set it on fire. Great! You burn my car and you will be burnt in hell.

The garda also told me that when it was still on fire, the attending garda tried to contact the owner. Using the registration number, it was traced to the car dealer, and it was no way for them at the time to contact them.

Well, I was fine the next day. Still shocked by the event but more forgiving. The support I got from the nursing staff, my colleagues, my friends either here or in facebook has been amazing. For instance, one of the nurses when she found one euro on the floor, she immediately gave to me and said, “ here Hairi, towards the fund of yours to get a new car”. Or the other nurse who wrote in a sympathy card which I received from them the next day “Dear Hairi, so sorry to hear about your loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with you at this difficult time, PS: Matthews Bus $12 return. Regular service”. Ahh... how thoughtful they are!

Finally I would like to express my utmost appreciation for the kind words of support and sympathy I have received from my friends.