Gqeberha resident Sandra Schmidt, who unexpectedly won a brand new vehicle, believes the Lord works in mysterious ways.
“He doesn’t always give you what you want; he gives you what you need,” she said, still fighting an overwhelming sense of disbelief after receiving a brand new Hyundai Atos recently.
As it turned out, the new car could not have come at a better time for her and, ironically, it will be a case of replacing like with like having driven a Hyundai I20 for the past 11 years.
“When I bought that car, I went to the West Coast in the Western Cape to get it because, at the time, I couldn’t find the model that I wanted in PE,” she said.
“I particularly wanted a 1600cc engine and it’s a car that has served me very well for more than 10 years. I love it to bits and found it economical, with enough boot space.”
As the vehicle was getting older, she was in the market for a new one – until unforeseen expenses in the complex where she lives forced her to shelve that idea in lieu of an ill-expected and rather sizeable special levy.
“I thought it was time for an upgrade but when this issue cropped up at the complex, I thought, ‘Ok, I don’t know when that is going to happen’.”
Schmidt, from Parsons Hill, was the lucky recipient of the car from thousands of entries in The Herald and Kelston Motor Group’s Win a Car competition.
Her name was one of eight finalists drawn from the entries delivered to 21 Kelston dealerships around the Eastern Cape.
After her name was drawn from the boot of the new vehicle Kim Daly, The Herald’s circulation, marketing and sales executive, called to give her the exciting news.
“I can tell you, when Kim phoned me on the Tuesday morning, I asked, ‘Kim, are you serious?’. She said ‘yes’, and I really couldn’t believe it,” said Schmidt.
“I actually started crying and when we ended the call, I went down on my knees and said ‘thank you Lord’.”
She then phoned a friend to tell her about her good fortune, but disbelief at the competition outcome still flowed through her.
“I said to my friend she must just keep quiet about this, and then I phoned Kim back and I asked, ‘Is this for real?’.
“I mean I couldn’t believe my luck. The box was so full where I put my entry in that it was overflowing.
“In fact, there was one gentleman who had crumpled his entry form to get it in and I thought ‘oh my goodness, that was the only crumpled one so they are going to draw his ticket’.”
She saw the competition after buying the newspaper one morning and decided to fill in some forms, which she delivered to the dealership on the closing day for entries.
“Because things are so busy here at the complex, I didn’t even think about it, and then Tuesday morning happened,” said Schmidt, who is currently doing duty as the chairperson of the trustees.
“I actually am not someone who enters competitions. The last one I entered when I won three leather chairs was many years ago.
“This was something that I never expected.”
Published in
https://www.nmbt.co.za/news/gqeberha_car_winner_doubts_whether_it_is_for_real.html
https://mygqeberha.com/gqeberha-car-winner-doubts-whether-it-is-for-real/
Article credit : Full Stop Communications
