‘I’ll appreciate that forever’: Strangers, friends surprise man battling cancer with car show

By Abbie Petersen

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    OMAHA, Nebraska (KETV) — A 33-year-old man battling brain cancer gets a front row seat to his own classic car show on Sunday.

Family, friends and strangers all stepped up to make this sweet surprise happen.

The smells and the sounds of these new and classic cars are some of Tyler Bain’s favorite things.

“I saw several cars driving down this road that I would consider my dream cars and I would consider cars and I would love to own, love to help get restored someday,” Bain said.

But unfortunately, he says won’t get the chance.

“I wanted to have some sort of vehicle like this, but my timeline has been shortened,” Bain said.

Shortened because Bain has a rare form of stage 4 brain cancer.

It’s his second bout with the illness and his wife Bree says it’s terminal.

“We found out last week that the cancer treatments weren’t working anymore. And so we started thinking of bucket list items. What are things that he wanted to do?” said Bree Bain.

What he wanted most was to see his dream cars.

So Bree posted on Facebook and a complete stranger, Brian Michaelis, took it from there.

Michaelis organized for drivers to meet up and then drive by the Bain house Sunday.

“I mean a couple gallons of gas, come out here show our support to the family, and I think everybody had a great time. And why not? That’s kind of the question, why not do things like this more often?” Michaelis said.

One after another, Bain’s dream cars passed by as he sat in his front yard in amazement.

“Being able to see him smile and point and laugh with his friends. Makes it all… this is what life should be about,” Bain said.

Bain says it’s this type of kindness that motivates him to keep moving forward.

“I’ll appreciate that forever. No matter when my timelines up. It’s going to be something that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life,” Bain said.

There is a GoFundMe set up for the family, you can find that here: gofundme.com/f/suf56n-the-bain-family

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