Justin Rozier, of Moore, Texas, never met his father. Army 1st Lt. Jonathan Rozier was lost while serving overseas when he was just nine months old, leaving him and his mother, Jessica Johns, behind. Johns updated her husband about their darling son barely 12 hours before he died. While this story is from 2017, it is just as relevant now as it was then.

After Jonathan died unexpectedly, Johns was left to pick up the pieces of their existence in Texas. She had to figure out how to survive emotionally and financially without her husband. Her husband’s treasured black 1999 Toyota Celica convertible was one of the decisions she had to make.

“I didn’t want to keep wasting my resources to pay for a car that nobody was using,” Johns explained to NBC. “It was sitting in my driveway.”

Following that, Johns went about her life, paying little attention to the automobile her late husband formerly drove.

Fast forward 14 years to Justin Rozier, who was then a teenager. The youngster had always wanted to see his father and treasured everything he owned. He had his father’s dog tags, photographs, and other prized belongings, but he couldn’t get his mind off of something his father adored: his automobile. He tried but failed to explain. He only wanted to sit in the same seat as his father, in the same automobile. Rozier, who was only a month shy of turning 15 at the time, had already acquired his permission and planned to receive his license the following year. His father’s automobile would be the ideal coming-of-age present.

Johns chose to try to get the car for her kid while knowing she had a slim chance of success. Nonetheless, she felt compelled to attempt her kids. She wrote about it on social media, and Rozier’s story quickly went all over the country.

“I mean, it could have been a 1974 Dodge Astro—I’m not even sure if that’s a car—but it could have been anything and he would have responded, ‘Yes,'” Johns said to CBS at the time.

What’s the reason? “I know he wishes his father was here,” she said.

When his father, Lt. Jonathan Rozier, died in Iraq in 2003, Rozier was just 9 months old. Rozier enjoys all he’s left behind after having his chance to get to know his father taken away so young.

“I don’t know, just knowing he had it — that’s a lot different than just about anything else,” Rozier confessed.

Johns was determined to grant her son’s birthday request. “I feel that this is something that will bring him together,” she remarked. Finding the old automobile would be a difficult task, but she had to start somewhere. “Well, I’ve seen some amazing things happen on Facebook,” Johns remembered. She then launched a social media effort to find the car. She posted a simple request on her page, accompanied by an old photo of the automobile, more than a year before Rozier’s 16th birthday. Keeping her plan hidden from her son was critical, so she devised a reason to restrict him from using social media.

I’m curious if this automobile is still available. I was planning on going on a year-long hunt to find this automobile, “she stated.”

It didn’t take long for the post to make its way to Pleasant Grove, Utah, where neighbors discovered the ’99 Toyota convertible. The owner’s daughter contacted Johns and offered her her father’s phone number, but warned Johns that he might not be eager to sell. Johns grew tense.

“My aspirations would be dashed if I called and he didn’t want to sell it,” Johns told NBC. “It took me 12 hours to get the bravery to dial his number.”

She explained to the car owner why purchasing the car back was so vital to her. He was hesitant at first, saying he would think about it. It barely took him an hour to return Johns’s call with the information she required.

She recounted their chat. “I think your son would appreciate having his father’s automobile more than I would,” she said. “I got excited,” she explained.

The automobile had been located and was ready to be sold, but there was still one issue: the finances. Kyle Fox, a Pleasant Grove native, steps in.

“We decided to see if we could buy the automobile,” Fox said to CBS. “So I’m constantly looking for opportunities to serve in that way.”

Fox raised funds for the surprise via his non-profit, Follow the Flag, which works to commemorate the lives and families of dead troops. After obtaining the automobile, Fox assembled a group of local technicians who volunteered to patch it up and restore it to like-new condition. It took them a month and a half to repair the ride so that it could be delivered to Rozier in time for his 15th birthday. “It’s what we do, and we do it in the hopes of inspiring others,” Fox added.

The secret was disclosed during Rozier’s birthday celebration, where he and his mother got into a fight. It was a touching moment.

“I was waiting for him, for it to register that it was Dad’s automobile,” Johns explained. “He begins staring at it, gets in, and looks just like his father.”

Naturally, the entire effort to deliver the automobile to Rozier was about what it represented: a piece of the father he never got to know.

For him, it’s a link to the past. It’s also a major deal for me. I never saw him return home. So that one time right there was—I believe I needed it, “Rozier stated.

Then, of course, it represents the power of a community when it joins together to support its neighbor.