ROMULUS, Mich. (WXYZ) — A Romulus family is raising funds to get back a passion project of their late father and husband. Darnell Hearst loved working on cars, but never got around to fixing up his beloved 1954 Ford F1. He passed away in 2019 from stage 4 pancreatic cancer and his family had to sell it to pay his medical bills. They now want to buy it back with the help of the community.
The Hearsts spend their weeknights together, making dinner and catching up at Sandra Hearst's house. Sandra was with Darnell for over four decades before he passed away.
“They say it gets easier in time," Sandra said. "I don’t know, because it’s some long nights. It’s some long days.”
Darnell had a busy life. He was one of the first Black firefighters in the city of Romulus and volunteered his time while working at General Motors, had a lawn care business, had four daughters, and still always made time for the Daddy-Daughter Dance.
"He was the longest-going father and stand-in father for a lot of girls that didn’t have a father for the Daddy-Daughter Dance," Sandra said while looking through pictures.
However, a few years ago life slowed down when he was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and was given just months to live.
“They gave him four months and he was with us for a whole other year," Darnell's daughter Delores Hearst-Colbert said. "Definitely a trooper. Definitely a fighter."
Darnell fulfilled his lifelong dreams of helping the community and having a large family, but there's a dream he didn't get to with his truck.
“I drove it from Ypsilanti to the house and we parked it, we were going to fix it up," Sandra recalls with tears in her eyes. "We were going to do it and we never got around."
When Darnell passed away in 2019, the Hearsts sold the truck to help pay for his medical bills. Douglas Clark at Clark’s Car Care took it in and was excited to restore it to its full original beauty.
"I've been working on it for about two and a half years," he said.
The family is now hoping to buy it back to remember Darnell by and to keep his name alive.
"It's never too late to bring a piece of someone back into your heart," Delores said.
Clark is willing to sell it back after investing time and money into it because he knows how much it means to the family. He's even turned away interested buyers waiting for the family to buy.
"I've had people show up and actually cry walking back to their car. It is a beautiful truck," Clark said.
The family is raising money through a GoFundMe to buy back the truck. Clark says he can hold it from interested buyers until December, but then has to let it go. He's hoping the family can come up with the money in time to return the now fully renovated 1954 Ford F1.
"The mother and the daughter, just wonderful people to deal with," Clark said. "I just hope they can put it back in their driveway and cruise it around on Sundays for ice cream.”
The family is hoping to raise the $9,000 before December 10 and will engrave every donors' name into the back of the truck. They hope to use the truck for parades that include the Romulus Fire Department and share the truck with the rest of the community when they can.
