It’s just an old car, a 1989 Honda Accord with about 160,000 miles on the odometer.
Today, it belongs to a Seattle couple, Stephen and Mary Ramaley. The gold Honda has been driven by their two grown daughters and by Stephen Ramaley’s parents.
To fix a cracked taillight lens, Stephen Ramaley had to go to a wrecking yard. “Honda no longer makes the part; the car is that old,” he said.
By Saturday, the Honda will belong to Tarah Virgil, a 30-year-old Snohomish mom who suffers from multiple sclerosis. To Virgil, it’s so much more than an old car.
“Stephen and Mary are giving me the ultimate gift,” said Virgil. “They are giving me my life back — independence. I can take my daughter to the park. I can go grocery shopping whenever I need to, the little things people take for granted.”
The car owners and the mom made a chance connection after Virgil placed a pie-in-the-sky request on Craigslist, an online classified ad Web site.
Introducing herself as a single mom of a 3-year-old, Virgil made a plea for a dependable car. She explained how she’d recently been reissued a driver’s license after not driving for several years due to MS-related health problems. Unable to work, and with disability benefits as her income, she can’t afford to buy a car.
“I believe God works wonders, so this is just a li’l prayer I’m putting out there — God bless,” Virgil wrote in her ad.
Not only were her prayers and her ad answered, Virgil was amazed to discover that she has much in common with Mary Ramaley. The 58-year-old Seattle woman also has multiple sclerosis. She is being treated by Dr. Sylvia Lucas, the same MS specialist Virgil sees at the University of Washington Medical Center. The two women are being helped by the same medication, Tysabri, which they take monthly through a three-hour infusion process at UW.
Both women began feeling the effects of the illness by their late teens. Ramaley wasn’t diagnosed until she was 44, while Virgil learned she had MS at 26. They’ve each been troubled by eyesight and leg problems. “I’ve gone blind about three or four times,” said Ramaley, who, like Virgil, has been much improved by her recent treatment.
Virgil, who is divorced and has a 3-year-old daughter, Kaiya, said her vision problems were so bad she lost her driver’s license several years ago. “I was very sick for a long time,” she said. With the medication, she’s feeling better than she has in a decade. Recently approved to drive by an ophthalmologist, she got her driver’s license back in April.
Mary Ramaley said their similarities are uncanny, and the chances of them finding each other were next to nil. “I don’t know why he was looking, it just leapt out at him,” she said of her husband seeing the Craigslist ad.
“Hondas do last forever, and I wanted to find it a good home,” he said. “I was hoping to keep it on the road just to keep it out of the jaws of some mechanical crusher.”
On Saturday, Virgil plans to meet the couple at the Bickford Ford-Mercury dealership in Snohomish. The Ramaleys said they’ll sign over the car’s title to the young woman.
Virgil sees it as the start of a new life. She and Kaiya live in a former barn renovated into a small house next to the home of her parents, Debby and Larry Berkovich. As a child, Virgil was a competitive figure skater. She did some acting, and as a teen appeared in a Kellogg’s cereal commercial.
Active in the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Virgil was the honoree of the Snohomish MS fundraising walk in 2007.
She has always had goals. Virgil is now working to become a foster parent. Well on the way to becoming licensed, she was looking on Craigslist for used baby items when she decided to seek a car.
“I attribute these amazing things to my faith in God,” said Virgil, who attends Snohomish Community Church.
“The great part of this story is the way I found Tarah, and our MS connection,” Stephen Ramaley said. “This is just one of those little things that go right in life.”
Little thing? Just an old car? Not to Tarah Virgil.
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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