Classic car destroyed in blaze, connected generations

When a fire destroyed a garage building and all its contents on Saturday night, among the items destroyed was a car that had joined three generations of Dawn Brockhaus’ family.

When Dawn Brockhaus turned 16, her father bought her the Chevrolet Camaro and had her work hard to pay off every penny of it.

“My brother and dad repainted it and fixed it up for me,” she said.

She recalled giving rides to Nick Stuttgen when he was child and she was dating his older brother at the time. “I would take him uptown to get an ice cream cone or a cookie or some special item. He thought it was pretty cool in that car and years later became our son’s baseball coach,” she said.

She said her son and Stuttgen’s nephew and their families were close friends. “Nick would always tell stories about how special that was and how cool my car was. My son had asked whatever happened to that car mom?” she said.

Dawn had sold the car when her son, Zac, was an infant because it wasn’t practical anymore. “It was hard to let it go then,” she said. She put it up for sale and her aunt actually ended up buying it.

“She thought we should keep it in the family so she bought it to give to her grandson years later. Her grandson never showed any interest in it. Her old boyfriend had ditched it once and it has sat out in the field for years and years and it was in terrible shape,” she said.

After Stuttgen died in a tragic drowning accident, they were reminiscing about the good memories of him and her son asked her if she knew what had happened to the car.

“Out of the blue my aunt had called and I found out my uncle had paid it forward to her years ago and bought her car and she was supposed to sell the Camaro,” Dawn said.

“So she decided on my son‘s 16th birthday, which was his golden birthday to pay it forward and give him the car back,” Dawn said.

“She was so happy that he was interested and even asked about it. She mentioned it to me and I said there’s no way he could afford it with the price of gas, insurance, and to fix it up,” Dawn said.

At that point the car wasn’t even able to start but with the help of Dawn’s father they brought it back and were able to get it back to surprise him on his birthday.

By chance, Dawn had won a shotgun at Stuttgen’s memorial ride. She said she surprised Zac with the shotgun at their family birthday dinner. “My dad asked him if he wanted to go shoot it at his house and was surprised when we went and he found the car sitting there for him,” Dawn said.

“Our son Zac has a real appreciation for things and has strong sentimental attachments. Since he has had it with the help of my dad, brother, husband and a couple friends we had completely restored the car,” she said. “His grandfather is also a car collector and one year the two of them entered their cars into the Abbotsford car show. They both won trophies that year and beamed with pride and smiles.”

“Knowing Zac, no matter how much of a loss I guarantee you he will be that kid to still pay it forward someday. There have been bloody knuckles and lots of lessons along the way trying to learn the ins and outs about fixing up a car, but they’ve been great life lessons. Lessons of hard work, family support, generosity, and now loss,” she said.