Aidan Fitzgerald is a 19-year-old heart-and-soul car guy.
He lives and breathes the bygone era of vintage cars and classic rock bands like Pink Floyd. He may have been born in the wrong decade to experience the cars and tunes first hand, but he likes to decorate his room with memorabilia from the glory days of cars and music. The one exception to the car theme in his room is Calgary Flames stuff, because Aidan is also a big hockey fan.
The major difference is that Aidan’s room is a hospital room and he has been there for a long time. Aidan has muscular dystrophy and he has to live within the confines of the illness and the hospital routine. He has a TV set and computer for his window on the world. More often than not, that world includes cars.
Aidan communicates by keyboard, but he communicates faster with his eyes when it comes to things that he loves. When you look around his room, you see rows and rows of Hot Wheels on the ledges, a car calendar on the wall, along with a shot of Route 66 in a photo. His roommate is a Siamese fighting fish named Chong; after the comic actor Tommy Chong.
The Hot Wheels hobby began around the age of two for Aidan, when he received 15 of them as a gift from his grandmother. Little did she know how much Aidan would embrace the car culture at such a young age. His favourite vintage rides are the Mercury Marauder and Chevrolet Impala SS.
But Aidan has his own custom-made favourites on his computer. He has a real eye for vehicle design and his computer allows him to design some creations that would steal the show at any car meet. Maybe he can’t work on custom design in a traditional sense, but you simply can’t keep a dedicated car guy down — no matter what you throw at him.
Aidan’s last ride in a vintage car happened when he was seven and rode in an MG Midget. But that may change since the local car guys have learned that one of their own kindred spirits (Aidan) would like to go for a ride in a classic car.
One of the things that we know about car guys is that they look after their own. They have a common bond with the car culture and are willing to jump into any situation where they can help each other.
The first thing they did was bring a car show to the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre for Aidan because he has a few issues that require specialized care, such as a respirator to assist his breathing. The demands of a busy hospital have severely limited Aidan’s ability to go outdoors, but he got a chance to attend a car show recently when the car guys showed up in force for a show in the hospital parking lot.
The weather was not great, but Aidan and a big collection of other patients were treated to a great show by the local car guys. Bear in mind that car guys would rather get run over by their vehicles than take them out in bad weather. But none of that mattered to them that evening because it was for a fellow car guy.
The kingpin (as always) was Gerry Paquette and he didn’t have to do any arm-twisting to rally the troops. He got Don Macgowan, Trevor Comfort and the Red Deer Street Rodders Association involved and the show was on.
But Gerry and the boys did not do this for the publicity. They probably would have preferred to stay out of the limelight, but we felt that people should know that it isn’t simply about horsepower and a good paint job for car guys. We have found that the car culture is one of the friendliest groups of people that you could find.
The sense of community in the car culture is an old-school neighborhood where the cars and community values come from a bygone era. That is what makes it a very special world, and Aidan will find that out when the boys get him out of the hospital for a spin in a vintage convertible.
The limitations of available equipment and staff stand in the way, but the car guys and a dedicated hospital employee plan to make it happen for Aidan. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer car guy.
Jim Sutherland is a local freelance writer. He can be found at mystarcollectorcar.com