Teen Angry With Mom for Selling Fallen Marine Father’s SUV–but Mom Has Sweet 16 Surprise

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Marine sergeant Nick Walsh’s most prized possession was his 1991 “Eddie Bauer” Ford Bronco. He pledged to one day pass the SUV down to his son, Triston, but tragedy got in the way.

Walsh lost his life to a gunshot wound while on deployment in Iraq in 2007. He was just 26 years old; Triston was 4 and his brother Tanner was only a baby.

Walsh’s widow, Julie, kept the SUV in memory of her grieving family’s lost husband and father, but time took its toll on the beloved car. Wishing to fulfill her late husband’s desire to give the car to Triston, Julie appealed to her local Millstadt, Illinois, community through social media. The response was nothing short of life-changing.

Julie wanted to surprise Triston on his sixteenth birthday. In order to maximize the impact of the surprise, Julie told her unsuspecting son that she had sold the Ford Bronco in order to put money toward a “better car” for his birthday on Jan. 26, 2019.

“[Triston] said, ‘Where’s my dad’s truck?’” Julie, a stay-at-home mom who also has two daughters, explained to Marine Corps Times. “I was like, ‘Well, kiddo, I had someone come out and look at it, and it’s going to cost way too much to fix it, so I sold it.’”

Triston was inconsolable.

The furious teen gave his mother the silent treatment. “I was so mad at her,” Triston told Fox-2 Now. “I just wanted to ... I didn’t talk to her for about two weeks.” Little did Triston know at the time, but his local community was making magic happen behind the scenes.

Mertz Ford Service Manager Ricky Boyer, having seen Julie’s message on social media, took the restoration project into his capable hands. “It was in pretty rough shape,” Boyer explained to Marine Corps Times. “It was garage-kept, so it looked pretty good, but there were mechanical problems from it sitting around for so long.”

A number of local automotive suppliers, catching wind of the Walsh family’s story, agreed to donate parts. Two of Boyer’s technicians, Tim Jarrett and John McCall, volunteered their time for free and fitted a new radiator, suspension system, battery, brake pads, tires, and rims, among other upgrades, to the car.

The complete restoration, funded entirely by donations of money, time, and parts, totaled around $12,000 in value. “We pretty much wanted to touch every nut and bolt on the vehicle because of its age,” Boyer said. “We wanted it [sic] make sure it was safe and dependable for [Triston].”

When Jan. 26 rolled around, the birthday boy was taken to the Mertz Ford car dealership thinking he was about to come face to face with his “brand-new car.” A crowd of over 100 people, including a number of Walsh’s former Marine comrades and a military color guard, gathered beneath red, white, and blue star-shaped decorations to witness the big reveal.

When the car was revealed, Triston was confronted by the reality of his sixteenth birthday surprise; his father’s prized Ford Bronco, fully restored, was now his.

The happy teen hugged and apologized to his mom for the silent treatment. Then, he climbed into the driver’s seat, revved the engine, and rolled out of the dealership to cheers from the gathered crowd.

“It was overwhelmingly sweet,” Julie’s cousin, Karrie Vanhosser, told Marine Corps Times. “The look on his face was priceless. It makes me sad that his dad wasn’t here to see it.”

According to the Daily Mail, the family planned to take a road trip in the restored Ford Bronco, in Triston’s father’s honor, in the summer of 2019. Triston would, of course, take pride of place in the driver’s seat.

The painstaking restoration was an act of patriotism on behalf of the team that brought Walsh’s prized Bronco back to life, and a symbol of the immense bond between father and son for Triston on his sixteenth birthday.

“It just means so much to me,” Triston said. “I’m just really happy that I’m able to have a piece of my dad left with me.”