"You have to remember, I'm all alone in the world," says 95-year-old Ann Fucci. "I have no family whatsoever."

Fucci decided to bequeath her car to her mechanic, Frank Young. After all, he had taken such good care of the car and had come to her rescue so many times.

And then she decided not to wait until after she was gone.

Fucci knew Young when he was a kid helping out at his father's service station. He would pick up her car for service or repairs and bring it back when it was done.

"She was a real get-to-the-point person," Young remembers. Fucci and her husband, Nick, owned Hawaii Business Machines, and Young said she was all business. "Back then, she didn't have time for telling stories."

The car is a 1972 Chevrolet Caprice, sea blue with a paisley interior. It isn't a universal showstopper, but among certain collectors, a car like this — impossibly long, low mileage and in near perfect condition — it's a honey.

"It has only 30,000 miles," Young said. "There's not a dent or a nick or a scratch on it. It has the original top, the original interior. I'm the only person who ever worked on that car."

Young owned the Chevron Service Station on Queen and South streets until 1999. He now has K&Y Auto Service on Kawaiaha'o.

The way Fucci tells it, whenever she called Young, he came flying to her rescue. He fixed stuff without charging her, answered her trouble call after his shop was closed, came to pick up her car if she couldn't drop it off herself. But the incident that sticks in her mind happened just days after her husband died.

She was at a photography shop having a portrait of her husband enlarged to put on his casket at the funeral. By the time it was ready, the parking lot was dark and the car wouldn't start. It was after hours, but she called Young. "I'll be right there," he said.

Over the years, there have been many notes left on the windshield of that blue Caprice that read, "Give me a call when you decide to sell."

But Fucci loved driving and she liked her car. Earlier this year, when she started needing oxygen to help her breathe, she decided her driving days were over.

Young good-naturedly grumbles about the gift car. "That thing is so big, I cannot park it in my shop" and "Now I have to wash it every week." Ann Fucci gave him permission to sell it, telling him, "Take the money and take your wife on a nice trip."

"I really don't feel good about selling it," Young says. "I told Mrs. Fucci any time she wants to go for a ride in her car, she can give me a call and I'll go pick her up."

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.