Not the Ending I Hoped For

This is a tale of a bike that has been through a lot in its years and it ended tragically last week!

This is M in 2001.......Christmas.......her first bike!  Isn't it pretty! 

She got the helmet, knee pads, elbow pads....the works.  It was a nice PINK girly bike.  She loved that bike, but after several years, she out grew it and it was passed to J. (oddly enough, I can't seem to find a pix with her riding that bike)

Then onto K it went.......

Here she is in the summer of 2010...the tires not so white anymore, but still.  She rode that forever....until the tires were bald and the seat was ripped.  It had a great life with this family for the past 11 years. 

Well a week or so ago, we were out in the garage putting some things away and it was hanging from the ceiling.  We asked each other why we still had it since no one was small enough to ride it anymore?  So, being a Saturday, I put a FREE sign on it and set it at the curb, hoping that someone would want it for their little girl.  Within a few hours, it was gone and I was feeling so happy that someone could use it.......until Monday morning!  I was out and about when I got a text from my hubby saying that he saw the bike on the round-about on the street leading out of our neighborhood and it looked like it had been through a war.  I was sad that some kids had taken it only to damage it and leave it on the street.  So on my way home, I stopped and picked it up to take it home.  This is what it looked like the day I set it out for the trash man to take......

A sad ending to a treasured gift for a 5 year old girl oh so many years ago. Maybe the garbage man took it home to fix it up for his little girl?  Or in reality, it was tossed away with all the other trash and now lies in the land fill with all the stinky trash.  It lived a good life and made 3 little girls very happy throughout the years.  Good bye pink bike!