By MARY TOBIA

tneditor@tnonline.comAs they say, life just keeps rolling along.This spring our oldest granddaughter got her driver's license. It seems like just yesterday I was pushing her on a swing, going for walks in a stroller and watching her learn how to ride her bike.She is a smart girl and takes driving very seriously.But this story is not about Maddie. It is about the car she is driving.It is a four-door, dark cherry 1998 Honda Accord with miles galore on the odometer. Over the years the color has turned from cherry to eggplant/purple.This car is special because this is the vehicle that her parents brought her home from the hospital in when she was born more than 17 years ago.How many people can say they learned to drive in the same car their parents brought them home from the hospital in when they were born?It was carrying precious cargo on board then as it still is today.Our daughter and her husband purchased the car brand new in Savannah, Georgia. The Honda was originally Maddie's mom's car but as the family grew her mom's car turned into a minivan, and much to her Dad's chagrin he got "stuck" with the Honda.It never had a pet name as sometimes happens. It was just referred to as "the Honda."The life through the years for this reliable car hasn't been the easiest.As with all military families relocation is a must. This car has been around as they would say.It spent a few years down south with the hot sun and high humidity. The car spent years climbing up and down the mountains of Pennsylvania. It was often covered with feet of snow in upstate New York. The Honda survived a bad hailstorm in Colorado with no more than a few small dents on the hood and trunk to show.The car even spent time outside of the United States. It crossed the sea twice. It spent a couple of weeks on a cargo freighter when it was shipped over to South Korea. It spent two years there and was shipped back again. It did take some time to get the car's air filter system back to normal from all the smog and yellow sand.Maddie's dad always took great car of the Honda inside and out. The family had other vehicles throughout the years but this car was never sold.So it was no surprise that Maddie would learn to drive in the Honda and it would be "her" car to drive to school, work and fun.Maddie's mom related how surreal it felt that day when she sat on the park bench watching Maddie pull away from the curb as she took her road test. As she watched the taillights of the Honda, she though back to the small baby girl in the backseat of that car and to now a young lady old enough to drive it. Where had the time gone?We visited the family a few months ago and we happened to drive by the school. Maddie no longer takes the bus. She now drives her brother to school. It was funny how I picked out that purple-colored Honda in the parking lot where she had parked it earlier. There it was sitting with all the rest of the newer cars in the lot. But the strange thing was that I could swear that little old Honda looked happy.This 1998 Honda Accord has served its family well, and if a car could show emotions it should be smiling from headlight to headlight.