Widower and great grandfather Alex Tairoa, 77, had his car stolen from a cemetery as he visited his wife’s grave.
Enter retired Whanganui trucking company owner (Grange Transport Ltd) and good dude Peter Molan, who upon reading about Tairoa’s story was reduced to tears, and knew he had to act.
“It really struck a chord with me,” says Molan. “As I sat there thinking about it I knew I had to help this guy out.”
Molan has offered Tairoa an early 1990s Ford Laser, and drawing on the unofficial transport motto of ‘do it right the first time’, the car has a current warrant of fitness, four new tyres, and only 62,000km on the clock.
“It was horrible that this had to happen in the first place, but at least this will give him his independence back,” he adds.
Tairoa visits his wife Margaret – who died in February – on an almost daily basis – they had been married 56 years.
He had left the keys in the ignition of his Mazda 626 and was about 20 metres away chatting to his ‘special lady’ when someone took the car.
While shaken by the event he says Molan’s kind gesture has shown that people do still care about helping others.
The pair will meet in the next few weeks as the car pickup is arranged.
