The Ambulance Bid
It was a bright, sunny, Saturday in October 2014. My husband was on call that weekend. He called to ask me to do him a favor. He had forgotten that he was invited to the local Lincoln Land Community College to attend an estate bidding sale. He gave me instructions over the phone and told me to bid on an ambulance to be used in the IHDN Mission Hospital in Ghana.
“What! How do you do that?” I asked. “I don’t know, but we need an ambulance.” He replied. He told me to bid up to a certain price and then stop.
I arrived at the college grounds in Chatham, Illinois. There were endless tools, equipment, office furniture, tractors, trailers, you name it. People were following a gentleman from point to point, like the Pied Piper, so I joined them in the bidding war, after I paid for my bidding card with number. I loved listening to the cadence of his baritone voice. I enjoyed the rise and fall of his crescendo and the finality of his, “Sold!” I followed the pack until almost to the end of the sale, where the larger items were being sold. I casually walked over to where the ambulances were.
There was a young man sitting by one of the ambulances. I introduced myself, “Hi, I’m June. Do you know much about this ambulance?” “Yeah, this one’s a Ford Cutaway Brand. It has around 35,000 miles. The EMT students at Lincoln Land used this for years in their training. Still in good shape. What are you needing it for?” “I’m looking for an ambulance to send to Ghana, West Africa.” I replied. He moved closer to the ambulance, climbed onto it, opened it and looked around. “Yeah, apart from sitting here for a long time, it looks decent. Might need a new stretcher cover, but that’s easy to come by.”
I thanked him and moved on to look at other equipment for sale. Soon it was time to start bidding on ‘my ambulance.’ As soon as the bidding began, I felt my heart skipped a beat. I was determined to win this! I waited until the third price and I lifted my paddle. Someone else went higher. I waited out the next bid, then raised my paddle. I saw, out of the corner of my eyes, a tall gentleman, raised his paddle and then slowly put his down again. “$1,700! Going, going. Gone!” Through the flurry of everything, I heard the Auctioneer man’s voice, “Sold!”
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June besides the ambulance when it arrived in Ghana in July, 2015