By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Tarasa Miller woke in tears from a nightmare.
She had been dreaming about her father's beloved classic Chevy truck —the one she sat in the back of during family cruise sessions. The truck she and her dad went to get ice cream in when she was a little girl.
The truck was destroyed.
"I was crying in my dream, and I woke up, and I was still crying. It was a feeling that I needed to go look for it. I needed to know how the story ended. How was it doing?" Tarasa said.
Tarasa, who lives in Hoisington, called her husband in tears. He tried to calm her down, saying, "You've got to find this truck, babe."
Tarasa's father died two years ago. The father and daughter had been estranged for more than 25 years.
Tarasa, 40, said she felt as if her dad was reaching out for her, and she needed to see that truck one more time to gain closure, find some peace.
But where to even begin looking for the truck?
The last person Tarasa knew owned the truck was her father's friend Doug Carver of Liebenthal, who is also now deceased. She heard Doug's brother, Pat Carver, might have the truck, but that had been years ago.
The truck had always been in the back of her mind — amongst the happy memories of her dad.
Her dad put an old school bus bench seat in the bed of the truck, where she would ride.
"I remember our dad driving us around, cruising around when that truck was old and green and beat up," she said. "My parents wold go get us ice cream cones, and we would ride around town to the zoo and all of that with us in the back of the truck."
As a adult, when she visited Liebenthal, she would drive around, hoping to catch a glimpse of her father's old truck in whatever condition it might be.
After her nightmare, Tarasa put up a desperate plea on Facebook in an attempt to locate her father's former truck.
Within a couple hours, she began receiving responses. The truck was not in a heap as she had feared in her dream. The truck was owned by Pat Carver, Doug's older brother, who had just moved back to Liebenthal from Hays two weeks earlier.
A friend of the Carvers' sent Tarasa a photo taken in 2011 of Pat's son, Austin, standing by the truck with his prom date.
"I instantly started crying," she said of when she saw the photo. "I knew this was the truck. ... I felt as if it was a message from my dad that he's OK, and he still loves me — that all is good between the two of us.
"My heart needed to know the rest of the story of this truck. It was a general unease in my life not knowing if this truck is OK. Where's it at? Does someone love this truck as much as I do?"
Tarasa said she was put in touch with the Carver family, who not only helped her fill in some of the holes in the truck's history, but also allowed her to see her father's truck again.
Pat Carver and his family also have a deep sentimental attachment to the 1950 Chevy. Doug Carver passed away suddenly not long after he received the truck from Jim Pfeifer, Tarasa's dad.
Pat said he and his brother were close. Doug and Pat were two siblings of six with Pat and Doug falling in the middle of the pack, and Doug being younger than Pat.
Pat said he and Doug looked alike, and people often confused the two. Doug was always into mischief.
"They seen my brother, and they thought it was me," Pat said, "so I would get accused of everything. He would never tell anyone anything different."
Doug said his whole family is close and losing his brother was tough.
Pat said Doug used the Chevy as a work truck for pulling limestone slabs that he used in carving, but Pat promised Doug before he died he would restore the 1950 Chevy. When Pat inherited the truck, he did just that.
The truck came from the factory painted green,and it had a gold interior when Jim Pfeifer owned it. When Pat inherited the truck, it was painted blue, so Pat went with blue paint when Greg Schaffer with Greg's Alignment restored the truck.
Pat had a new 350 engine installed in the truck, as well as a new transmission and rear end. The wooden planks in the bed were restored. The gold interior with bucket seats that Tarasa remembered was replaced with a bench seat with grey and blue upholstery.
As a tribute to his brother, Pat had "In Memory of Doug" pin striped on the engine firewall. The tag is custom — 4UDoug.
The truck has been used in many parades over the years and featured in car shows. Pat takes it out for weekend cruises and, at times, he drove it to Liebenthal to work at his beef jerky plant.
On March 13, on a cold dreary day, Tarasa and Pat met in Liebenthal and Tarasa was reunited with her father's truck.
"I thought I would be pretty emotional when I saw the truck," she said. "I thought I was going to break down like a cry baby and just lose myself, but I didn't. I was so excited"
The truck was no longer the broken-down green monster she remembered from her childhood, but she said she was so pleased to see the truck restored to its original glory.
"Although it was emotional to me, it was closure for me for some of the bad feelings and hurt me and my father had," she said. "It made me feel better. It brought peace, and it brought some closure to losing my dad."
Pat said he was pleased to be able to share the truck and his memories of his brother with Tarasa.
Pat said he hopes the truck will stay in his family for years to come. Although he is enjoying the truck in his retirement, he plans to deed the Chevy to his son, Austin.
Tarasa said the Carvers have been very gracious in letting her connect with the truck again. She said the truck is right where it should be, because Austin also has fond memories of growing up with the truck.
"It is cool that two kids, in two different generations grew up with this truck," she said. ...
"I have had many people through all of this say, 'Buy it back. See what it would cost to buy it back.' I said, 'No way!' It's not even a thought in my mind. I have the memories with that truck, and Austin has his memories he has with that truck. You can't put a price tag on a memory."
Tarasa said finding the truck was "a miracle only heaven could pull off
"It has brought a lot of closure between me and my dad, and it's brought me new friendships with the Carver family."