Cece Davis, known to her friends as CeCe the Civic, was born in 1996 in Japan. She passed away June 14, 2011 at 9:05 am in Denver, Colorado. The final cause of death was found to be a defective distributor cap, shot spark plugs and ignition wires, however, CeCe had been suffering many illnesses for a long time. At her death, she was bald (front two tires only), a badge which she wore proudly as those were her winter tires she still holding on to.Cece's long and illustrious life began in a factory in Japan. She loved her home country until the day she died, though was never able to return. As an infant orphaned car, she traveled to Miami, Florida to await a new home. She was soon spotted by the Davis family. The Davises, disillusioned by their previous vehicle, the Eclipse, were looking for a family car. They traveled to Miami to purchase a new car on the advice of Iana's brother, Paul. It is here, on a car lot in Miami, that the Davis Family found CeCe in March of 1997. Coincidentally, it was close to Talia's 16th birthday (CeCe's new owner/sister). Though CeCe was not leased for Talia, they would come to form a deep and unique relationship and bond. Once she arrived at her new home in Vero Beach, CeCe found herself a bit nervous. Fortunately, the old household vehicles soon put her at ease. 
Talia and CeCe would soon become extremely close as adopted sisters, however, their relationship was a bit bumpy at first. While Talia had learned to drive on a stick shift, she had to learn to feel CeCe's unique personality... which lead to many stalls and jumps. It was nearly a year before Talia was allowed to drive her on her own. Life settled into normalcy for the Davis family. CeCe became familiar with the terrain and could almost drive herself to the synagogue where her new father, Rabbi Davis worked. She proudly stood tall in the parking lot on Shabbat, waiting to take the family home for Shabbat dinner. One day, CeCe noticed something was different. Her friend, the Mazda mini van was gone and replacing her were three Land Rovers. CeCe was soon to learn that the Davis Family were moving to Colorado... and leaving her behind. She was inconsolable until she learned that Talia would be taking over as her new mother and she would be attending college with Talia. What an exciting adventure for a young car! Talia and CeCe got along swell these days... eating breakfast together in the mornings on the way to school... putting on make up on the way to school... listening to and rewinding and listening to again the Beastie Boys tape Adriana had gotten them.CeCe went to stay with their grandmother in Palm Coast while the rest of the family drove to Colorado. It was a short time before Talia was back to make the trek to college. CeCe enjoyed her time at Jacksonville University, despite the life long sunburn she endured from living outside in the Florida sun. She made trips to Atlanta, Orlando, New York, and Miami, living up the college lifestyle. There was much to get used to, though. Friends smoking cigarettes or "special" cigarettes in her, late night trips to the Gate station to get Krispie Kremes, and even a stint of CeCe being used as temporary lodgings for a short time when Talia didn't have a place to sleep. CeCe finished school at Jacksonville University in May of 2003 but stayed on that summer to assist Talia in managing the school's swimming pool. They then packed up and drove to Colorado. CeCe would often brag at how much Talia could fit in her and that Talia could move by only packing up the car and didn't even need a trailer.
Living in Colorado was challenging for CeCe to start. She was unaccustomed to the cold and the mountainous terrain posed some challenges for her engine. Talia and CeCe used to often joke that her A/C button was the turbo button since she could zoom faster with it off. This stems from a trip they took in Talia's senior year of high school to her camp, Camp Coleman, in the mountains of Georgia. The infamous driveway out of camp is very steep and CeCe would not be able to make it up unless her A/C was turned off. That was just one of many fun road trips they took together. Another memorable one was when CeCe and Talia drove 24 hours to get from Wichita to Jacksonville in one day so Talia could pick up her keys for her senior year of college. They danced and sung the whole drive... then both collapsed into their beds when they arrived at JU. The last of their big adventures was when Talia moved to LA. Once again, she packed up CeCe and they drove away. Both girls collapsed at 2am in Vegas, both seeing the Strip for the first time. However, neither Talia nor CeCe enjoyed LA and within 9 months, they were packing up again to drive back to Colorado, this time with their brother, Ronin, in tow. Talia and Ronin didn't plan so well and they packed CeCe full with the driver seat in a position so Talia (5'3") could drive... thus when Ronin (6'1") tried to drive, he couldn't move the seat and Talia had to drive the whole way. Along for the ride was Talia and CeCe's pet hamster, Fuzzy. Fuzzy believed that by running in her wheel, she was driving CeCe. Not wanting Fuzzy to feel sad, CeCe allowed her to continue feel that way. It was a sweet moment between friends. Sadly, this was also the trip that was life threatening for all involved. A blizzard hit Arizona while they were on the road. Despite Talia's safe driving and CeCe's best attempts, they hit a patch of black ice and spun out. After rotating three and a half times, all the travelers were scared out of their wits. They decided it was time to find a hotel for the night. In the morning, CeCe was buried under a couple of feet of snow. They dug out and continued their adventure home.
CeCe stayed close to home in her later years. Talia pushed her on a few trips up the mountain but she was getting older and just wasn't as spry as in her youth. Over the years, she developed some funny quirks and started to show her age. She lost her front bumper, had a partial bridge put in but soon lost it in an accident on I-25. She had her windshield replaced several times due to rock chips and cracking. In her later years, her tape player then CD player stopped working. Her radio dial would not respond to commands often going up when it needed to go down and down when it needed to go up. Her rear driver door stopped opening and passenger windows stopped going down. But funniest of her quirks was her turn signals. A true Florida girl, when the winter came in for good, she would stop automatically turning off her signals but when it warmed up for good she would start working as normal. Always a jokester till the end.CeCe lost her battle on June 14 at 9:05am at 13th and Monroe st, where she stopped a stop sign and never got started again. She was towed to a shop where she was pronounced dead at 11:16am. She is survived by her sister and best friend: Talia, her brother: Ronin, parents: Reb Bahir, Hedvah, and Iana, and many friends and extended family. Most notably of her friends, Justine Veree Naiman whose car preceded CeCe in death and was CeCe's best friend in LA.CeCe requested any tributes or flowers be sent to Talia to aid her in purchasing a new car... which CeCe also insisted on in her last puffs. The family will be sitting an abbreviated shiva as CeCe was a car and not technically Jewish (though she proudly wore a car mezzuzah on her kepi (head), a picture of the Rebbe around her neck (review mirror), and kept a Tanach inside her).Baruch Dayan haEmet (Blessed is the true judge)
Hashgacha Pratis = Divine Providence = Fate?
I know a lot of people don't believe in hashgacha pratis or divine providence or the invisible hand of G-d. I don't know that I always believed in it either. BUT a recent turn of events made me think that someone is certainly watching out for me. I knew there had to be someone. I mean honestly. The fact that I have only had to sleep in my car once for a few days... that despite moments of serious poverty, I managed to find food to eat most of the time... someone had to be watching out over me and my family. The most recent example of this happened last week when my car died.My poor CeCe the Civic. Sweet thing. She was 15 years old, half as old as I am. My father got her when we lived in Florida and I learned to drive on her. She was my dad's car but I drove her more often than not. He graciously allowed me to use it my senior year of high school, unless it was raining out and he couldn't ride his Harley to shul. In college I took over the payments for her and then, with the help of some family members, bought her outright. I tried to remember to change her oil and do the right maintenance but, reference to above, there were many times when there just wasn't money for it. I was one of very few freshmen at Jacksonville University who had a car but she was a stick shift so no one could borrow her... We had a grand time. She took me up and down the coast of Florida more times than I can count. She made the drive to and from Colorado many times and then to and from California once. I would go on but I will write a reminiscence of my car soon. This blog is about fate.I was so thankful to have four wheels, even though by the end she was so sunburnt and missing her front bumper. She wasn't the prettiest girl in the neighborhood but I didn't have car payments. There were many, many years in my career that a car payment would have sunk me. It would have been a choice between not eating all month and making a payment or eating and no car payment. Despite accidents and issues, she stuck around.It wasn't until last Tuesday that she puffed her very last breath. I believe that she (or G-d) felt that I was finally safe and in a place to make a very necessary car payment. Let's look at the facts:By last Tuesday I had:
- Received an insurance payment from an accident that happened 5 years ago. The insurance companies dragged it out so long but I finally got paid!
- A steady job. One that pays me regularly and where I do not fear that an administrator will say, "Sorry team, can't give you your paychecks this month, we are short." Which, of course, had been the unsteady case for the past two years. Prior to that my job paid me so little that it is quite literally shocking.
- Finally moved into downtown Denver... where the buses are accessible and if, perhaps, say your car breaks down that you can take a bus (within the fabulous RTD system) to and from work within 20 minutes with little hassle and pretend that you are living in Manhattan and read the book you have been meaning to read forever all for just $2.25 each way.
If my car had broken down without all of these steps, without one of these steps, I would have been royally screwed. Without the money, I can't make a down payment. Without the job, I couldn't MAKE A payment. Had she broken down when I didn't live in Denver, I might have freaked out a little more and bought the first car I saw for cheap.Sometimes I like to say that it was my car, CeCe, looking out for me. Sometimes I like to say it was my Grandpas, looking down and trying to make sure their Tali was safe. But wrap those both together and you see that it is really G-d in my life. G-d has protected me and will continue to do so. Now, G-d hasn't made it easy by any means. This car process has been one of the most stressful events in my life! Did you know everyone has an opinion on a car? Sheesh! But it has also been an important reminder... man plans, G-d laughs... or maybe just chuckles a little bit. We can plan all we want, because we have free will as to how we get to the destination but the destination is all planned.Seeing the little miracles or joys along the way, that's the bonus.