A one-of-a-kind classic car goes up for auction, but there’s a twist
Ed Haraldson bought his dream car while dying of cancer. Now it’s going up for auction, with proceeds to Stars Air Ambulance.
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Outlook’s Ed Haraldson was dying of cancer last year when he walked into a Saskatoon shop and asked about buying a 1969 Dodge Dart.
He’d owned one, back when he was young and fast. But he sold it in 1976 through a classified ad — said goodbye to his Dart GT, freshly painted, packed with features and spare parts.
The ad ran six times in the StarPhoenix. It didn’t need a seventh.
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We don’t know at what point Haraldson began pining for that old car again. He was a quiet man; didn’t talk much about it with his wife and sons Sean and Troy. Not until the cancer came, anyways.
The car became a dying wish, so he found and bought one. Then he had a second dying wish — he wanted that car sold off when he was gone, with every penny going to charity. It’ll be auctioned Saturday at Saskatoon’s Prairieland Park — proceeds go to Stars Air Ambulance — and a lot of people helped Ed’s widow Patti get things together for the big day.
“He would have thought it was a part of his life that was done with,” Patti says. “But when you know you’re dying … he went back to his race car days. That was good, because it gave him something to think of. Something positive.
“As sad as it was, it brought him great pleasure to say that he owned this. And then to have it sold, and the proceeds going to charity, is a wonderful thing — near and dear to his heart. He told me, ‘Once I’m gone, you can do whatever you want, but my wishes are …’ and of course, how can I not honour those wishes? You’ve got to do that. That’s a wonderful gift.”
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It’s interesting, the way old cars stir up the hearts of men like Haraldson. Rod Deschner owns Rod’s Hotrods, and he sold the ailing man that custom-built, orange and cream Hemi Dart. He has seen how various mixes of bolts, metal and upholstery send men into flights of reverie. Some cars aren’t just cars.
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“I can tell with people, when they’re trying to find a car,” Deschner said this week. “I could see it in (Haraldson’s) eyes. I didn’t even have to say anything. I just knew. When I opened up that garage door … that was it. That was the one. I’m not sure if it was because of the colour or what it was, and I don’t even know if he asked the price on it. He didn’t care. He was going to go home with it.”
Haraldson’s world flipped upside down when he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in October of 2023, the day before he and Patti were supposed to head off on a Nashville bus tour. They cancelled the trip.
Ed, who farmed southwest of Hanley before moving to Rosetown, had 15 months of life left. He spent a good portion of that going through chemo, radiation, tests and surgery — the latter, an Ivor Lewis esophagectomy. And then the cancer metastasized, placing five tumours in his brain and spots in both lungs.
“So from there, we knew he was definitely palliative,” Patti says. “I tried to grant him as many wishes as possible, because it was rough.”
That’s when Ed’s nostalgia and passion for the ’69 Dart poured out. He’d owned it before marriage and family responsibilities, and his interest in finding a similar car caught Patti by surprise.
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“He saw one for sale at Rod’s,” she says, “so he went in there and he needed to have that car. It was a race car. I thought for God’s sakes, of all the things to buy, you want to buy a frikking race car that you can’t drive?
“But anyways, we did, and it was wonderful.”
They took the vehicle to a Rosetown car show, hosted by the Dusty Wheels Auto Club. That gave Ed his one and only ride in the Dart. He sat in the passenger seat, as a man backed it out of the trailer and into the building.
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“He was just thrilled,” Patti says. “Absolutely thrilled. So much had been taken away from him, so to have that was wonderful. This was his dream.
“That is when I realized how much this guy had a passion for cars. Ed was a very, very smart man, and even with those five stinking tumours he had, it was amazing what he could recall and the information that he could pass on and the guys that he could converse with.”
Deschner calls this particular Dart “a really special car.” It was built by the renowned Bryon Thiessen out of his Creative Concepts shop in Warman.
“I had it at my personal acreage,” Deschner says. “It wasn’t even in our showroom — it’s that special. I took him and Patti to the house, and I showed them the vehicle in my garage. It’s exactly what he was hoping it would be. It’s a very showy car. One of the best builders in Canada built that car. And it’s very well-known in the car circuit.”
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A Thiessen-built 1968 Ford Shelby Mustang fetched $1 million U.S. when it was auctioned off for Stars Air Ambulance in 2022 — purchased by Prince Albert philanthropist Gord Broda, who wanted to give them a big boost.
And now we have Ed and Patti and their Dart, which will very soon be somebody else’s Dart.
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Patti says Ed was a quiet man, who “just liked being.”
He loved farming, family, friends, playing poker, going to the lake, watching his grandkid’s activities, golf, working with leather and metal.
He was 74 when he died on Jan. 10 of this year, two days after Patti’s birthday. He was able to wish her a Happy Birthday before he died, which meant the world to both of them.
He’d stayed home until Dec. 27, when he could no longer walk or support himself. Patti, a retired nurse, cared for him before that. Their home overlooks the South Saskatchewan River, and they set up a hospital bed in the living room so Ed could look outside.
“It was a hard decision (to leave home for the last time and go to the hospital), but he made it,” Patti says. “He was the one who said it’s time.”
And then Ed died, and now the family has a car to sell.
“I’m very thankful for Rod steering us in the right direction,” she says. “I tried to be upfront with everybody, because that’s how Ed and I were throughout his illness. We needed to talk frank. And I told Rod (before Ed’s passing), this car will be coming back to you, because I know nothing about the car world — nothing. I said, this is Ed’s dream, and it’s putting a smile on his face, and that’s great, but it will be coming back to you.
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“I asked for his direction, and he’s the one that said, ‘What are your thoughts on doing this through EG Auctions?’ ”
Deschner’s friend Todd Schwindt runs EG Auctions, which specializes in selling classic cars. He talked to Schwindt; told him that rather than selling it out of his showroom, “Why don’t we try and blow this up?”
So Schwindt is waiving all seller and buyer fees, making sure 100 per cent of the sale price goes to Stars.
“A lot of the buyers we have are investors,” Schwindt says. “And then you have collectors, and then you have the buyers who have an emotional attachment to the old classic cars — whether their dad drove that car, whether they had that car in high school … there is a close emotional attachment that speaks volumes.
“And everybody likes a muscle car. They don’t make them anymore; they’re made of real steel; they sound great, they smell even better.”
“We’re just trying to help the family with whatever we can do,” adds Deschner, who plans to bid. “No one’s getting anything for this — all the proceeds are going 100 per cent (to Stars). We’ll get the car in, do the detailing, get it looking good and ready to go. Then Todd does his thing.
“Hopefully it brings some money for the charity. Hopefully word gets out.”
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Perhaps a man or woman steeped in nostalgia will buy the car, or maybe somebody wanting to lend Stars a hand will step up big. There’s power to a car, beyond the machinery under the hood.
“It’s memories,” Deschner says. “That’s what it is. All these cars bring back a memory. People can remember what their first car was, but most people can’t keep their first car.
“It’s all about memories, and that’s why all the ’50s cars are kind of going by the wayside now. The people buying these old cars, in the age group they’re in … they’re buying ’60s cars now, the ones they can remember, all the muscle cars.
“For instance, my first car was a 1970 GTO. I couldn’t afford the gas, I had to sell it and (laughs) I bought a Honda Civic.”
Ed Haraldson’s memories bound themselves to a 1969 Dart, which he sold and dearly missed. He was proud to own it again, proud that it would help a Saskatchewan charity, and proud of Patti and their 46 years of marriage, which ended with a promise.
Patti is ready to let it go.
“It’ll be a thing to (help me) move on,” she says. “I just didn’t want the car sitting around in the trailer, collecting dust. And I needed to honour his legacy. He wanted things to go to charity. It was hard when Rod asked me what I thought about it. And it was, ‘Okay, this is another thing, a last thing, I can do for Ed. This is the last thing I can do for Ed.’ ”
The auction is at Prairieland Park, and the doors open for a Friday viewing from 4 to 8 p.m.
On Saturday, the doors open at 8 a.m. — there’s a $15 charge that day — and the auction starts at 10 a.m. They’ll sell 100 cars that day, and the Dart will be the 2 p.m. feature.
Numbers will fly, a gavel will strike, and they’ll sell a car for Stars. And for Ed.
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