56 year old Ernie Mlynczak from Carstairs has had a love for cars all his life so when the opportunity came up to own and restore a ’68 Firebird – he jumped on it, despite the fact that it had many missing parts as well as a shot engine and transmission.
Ernie knew it would take considerable time and resources to complete this project so he came up with a plan to save all of his ‘lunch money’ to start funding the project. That’s how the car eventually got its unique name, ‘Lunch Money’.
Lunch Money was going to be one for Ernie and his wife Kathy to work on together and to keep forever. However, what was supposed to be a five or six year project ended up becoming a scramble to complete in just a few short months.
By last June, about a year into the project the car was coming along quite nicely. Ernie was able to save enough money to buy parts enough to keep the momentum going. As a jack of all trades, he planned to do all of the work himself including the body, paint, engine, and interior.
But then tragedy struck when Ernie was diagnosed with ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). Because the disease progressed quickly, Ernie had to eventually stop working on the car in the fall of 2013.
“It (ALS) is an ugly disease, and it’s not fair,” says Kathy.
It was about this time that Phil Laprairie, an avid car collector from Chestermere, got a text from his long-time friend Ernie. Ernie’s wife Kathy describes the friendship between the two, “It is genuine, as genuine as it gets. They are brothers from different mothers”, she says.
Ernie asked Phil if he would help Kathy finish the car after he passed away. But something about that did not sit right with Phil, who decided then that he would do whatever he had to, to ensure Lunch Money was ready for the road before Ernie was gone.
“Next you know Phil is on his way to our house setting a plan to have the car completed before I die’, states Ernie in a type written story about the history of the Firebird. Phil contacted friends and family and organized them to come out to help with the mammoth project, setting a goal to have it complete by February 20, 2014 – the opening date of the World of Wheels, an annual car show for custom cars held at Calgary Stampede Park.
Phil and Kathy led the way, but Ernie was never far. “He over saw everything, and he let us know when we were doing something he didn’t like” said Kathy, “Whether he was feeling like crap or not – he came out to the garage and he would stand there with his iPad watching everything we did.” Unable to speak, Ernie now uses an iPad to communicate.
What seemed like an impossible task, was achieved because of the relationships Ernie has made with so many people. “There is nowhere that Ernie and I go where people don’t know him, they hear his voice and can find him in a crowd, even if the last time they talked to him was 30 years ago” explains Kathy, “But it seems that whoever he meets is not just a friend but a friend for life.”
“This truly is a miracle, it so warms my heart that people love him like I do, and that they care about him like I do. He’s my hero”, says an emotional Kathy. When asked for one word that describes this her reply is, “I can’t – it’s too overwhelming.”
“We were on a wing and a prayer that all of this work that needed to be done would be done on time,” explains Kathy. “The goal was the World of Wheels, but I cannot fully believe that we are standing here today with the car complete.”
With little sleep, over 3000 documented hours and an incredible amount of love and support Lunch Money is complete. “Kathy and myself put the last screw in it at 8:00 in the evening of February 19,” Ernie says in his story, “Phil picked the car up to take to the World of Wheels at 12:00 February 20th.”
“There was a lot of people who doubted that this car would be here,” says Phil with a smile.
The next goal is to get Ernie behind the wheel and on the road once enough snow is melted and the weather cooperates. “My dream is that he (Ernie) can drive it”, says Kathy.
It is apparent after meeting Ernie and witnessing the amount of love that is shared between him and his friends and family that they would do anything for this man and I can only imagine that that is a true testament to the type of man that Ernie is. He concludes the story of his Firebird with a heartfelt line, “Thank you to everyone who made this dream possible, especially my soul mate and true love of my life, Kathy.”
At the 48th Annual World of Wheels with his daughter Megan, his best friend Phil and his wife Kathy standing ever steady by his side, Ernie reaches for his iPad and touches it to communicate his thoughts with us, and out of it I hear the words that he wants to say, “We did good.”
If you missed it at the World of Wheels, you can look for Ernie’s ‘68 Firebird at this year’s 13th Annual Chestermere Lake Show and Shine on Saturday August 16th.
