“If someone else can design it, then build it, I can fix it,” was something Daddy always said.

Daddy could fix just about anything, no matter what it was– cars, houses, even the rusted old tractors that littered the fields outside. Every night, he’d walk into the house, old black leatherwork boots hitting the floor like rain on an old tin roof. The oil and grease stains on his blue overalls painted a picture of the long, hard days he worked. The contents of the pockets seemed to change almost as much as the weather, but no matter what, he always had his flashlight. The smell of gasoline and old paper seemed to cling to him.

Daddy always wore the same black shirt with his prized possession, a 1971 Hemi orange Plymouth Cuda, on the back. Eventually, he expanded his color palette, but the orange stayed his favorite. Daddy seemed to come home with a new scar that, over the years, started to cover his arms like how stars cover the night sky. But through the blood and sweat from a long day's work, Daddy always found a way to fix seemingly everything.

For 40 years, Daddy served the community of East Nashville, fixing cars, changing lives, and making many lifelong friends along the way. His office was full of every certification you could imagine. His ASE Master Technician certificate hung proudly over the old rickety filing cabinet.

One could walk into the former gas station that was now a mechanic shop, and see him standing under the old yellow lift, working on just about anything. The shop was always bustling with people; Daddy would be working in the shop, fixing something, probably an old 1970s muscle car, Mama in the office working on the books, and one of his daughters sitting up at the front desk answering the constantly ringing landline with calls from customers, family, friends, and even other mechanics.

Other mechanics would call him constantly, asking questions and looking for answers — which coined the lifelong nickname “The Answer Man.”

Daddy had always loved cars. At fifteen, he rebuilt his first engine on his Plymouth Cuda, a high-performance vehicle that he still owns to this day. The all-American muscle car was painted a bright Hemi orange that stood out among other vehicles like stars in the dark night.

But the most important thing that stood out about him wasn’t his cars — it was his generosity and willingness to serve others. Daddy would always go out of his way to help people: from the elderly men whose hands no longer worked well enough to change a lightbulb, to the teenagers who needed their lawn mowers fixed to make some extra spending money, to the young kids with a flat tire on their bike. And he made sure never to charge a dime.

After spending over half of his life working on cars, Daddy closed down his shop. Five years ago, he retired — but retirement to him seems to only mean working on the “cool” cars. As the glass doors to the building he’d spent his life in shut like a book, Daddy opened the next, and most enjoyable, chapter yet: fixing up his old hot rods.

Editor's Note: Kaytlynn is a student at South Haven Christian School in Springfield. She enjoys chiseling her writing skills in Mrs. Hollan Stiles' English class. Stay Positive News thanks Mrs. Stiles and other teachers willing to share students' works with our community. Creativity is a tool that helps us appreciate the seemingly small moments. And gratitude is a core component of staying positive.