In November 1979 I needed to sell the car for a deposit on a house, as I was getting married in 1980. As I had access to a company car at that time, my MGB was unessential. A familiar story to many I expect.
Heartbroken to part with the car.  I sold it to the sister of a good friend who was looking for a replacement MGB for her old MGB roadster at that time.
Shortly after selling her the car, I was missing my MGB so decided to write her a letter. I wrote to say I was interested should she ever want to sell so please could she give me first refusal. “It’s not for sale” was the reply.
Quite a few more years went by, and although I had no more contact with her, I remained in touch with her brother who knew she still had the car. Apparently, ‘Violet’ was her pride and joy, and she was very protective of it with no intention of selling.
Forty-four years after selling her the car, I learned from my friend that his sister had sadly passed away. Although not appropriate at that time to ask about the car, I did wonder after so many years if she had kept it?
One day in September 2023 completely out of the blue, I took a phone call from the lady’s husband. He had been going through her things after she had passed away and had discovered the letter I had written at least 40 years earlier! After finding and reading my old letter, he contacted me to give me first refusal I had asked for all those years ago. He had got my mobile number from his late wife’s brother, my old friend. Her husband told me she had kept the car, but he had no interest in it, and was keen to sell and hoped I was still interested! I learned that during the last 12 years of her life the car had been garaged and not driven. She had treasured the car for all those years and although she had suffered rapidly declining health, her husband had been given strict instructions not to sell ‘Violet’ while she was alive. I was very interested!
During her many years of ownership, the car had been well looked after, maintained, enjoyed, and loved. Many aspects of the car had remained unchanged including my old Gold Seal engine replacement! Apparently ‘Violet’ had her own bank account which was credited when some spare cash was available. This enabled essential mechanical repairs and improvements but only when there was enough was in ‘Violets’ account. There was a good deal of paperwork and invoices of work carried out, and programmes to show the car had been entered into few car shows, and rallies too.