Donna Clayson admits it’s bittersweet to watch buyers drive off in the classic vehicles she’s selling, given they’ve been part of the landscape of her home for years.

Clayson’s husband, Bryan, died last October, leaving Clayson and the family with decades of countless memories and his collection of classic vehicles he had spent years restoring.

In keeping Bryan’s memory alive, she’s selling off many of the vehicles.

She is also donating a very special one to the Yukon Transportation Museum and keeping one that Bryan had restored for her.

As she said in an interview this week, she doesn’t want the many other vehicles to sit in her south Whitehorse yard and deteriorate, so she made the difficult decision to sell.

Having the vehicles in use honours her late husband’s memory more than having them sit stationary would, she said.

It’s a 1934 Chevrolet Master Sedan that will be donated to the museum.

Beneath one of the windows will be a plaque marking Bryan’s life from 1951 to 2016.

A shelf inside the car will hold a glass replica of the vehicle, with Bryan’s ashes in the headlights.

“Bryan will be in his car forever,” Donna said.

Bryan had always said he wanted to be cremated, his ashes put into the vehicle and buried in the Yukon, she added.

Bryan’s passion for old vehicles was evident throughout his life, as Donna recalled.

He was just 13 years old growing up on a farm in Saskatchewan when his stepdad asked him to go get the family’s truck and bring it to the field.

It had a standard transmission, but somehow Bryan figured out how to get it to the field.

“I think that’s when he got his interest,” Donna said.

It was also in Saskatchewan, at a garbage dump, where Bryan found the ’34 Chev.

“He restored it right from the frame out,” Donna said, recalling the rotting wood that had to be replaced.

Over the years, Bryan would buy and restore many vehicles, a passion that continued throughout his life.

He did not have a particular brand of vehicle he was keen on; for him, it was simply old cars that he loved.

Bryan spent much of his career working for Edmonton Light Rail Transit. On their hobby farm in Alberta, there was room for Bryan to tinker with the many vehicles he purchased.

“I just kept saying ‘you’re crazy,’” Donna said with a laugh.

Along with the vehicles came the purchase of parts like a $250 hood ornament for the ’34 Chev.

When they retired and moved to the Yukon in 2008, they sold off a number of their classics.

The couple arrived with about a dozen, including the 1964 Rambler convertible he restored for Donna that she is keeping.

It was a difficult decision to sell the other classics, she said, but she did not want to see them deteriorate sitting in the yard.

She has already sold some, including a 1967 Mercury Cougar, and is continuing to find buyers on some specific vehicles that Bryan was in the midst of working on. Others – like a VW Kombi – drew a buyer willing to purchase on the spot.

While Donna works to preserve Bryan’s memory, it’s clear he meant a lot to many people in Whitehorse.

In addition to the replica of the ’34 Chev, Donna had a replica made of the ’64 Rambler with Bryan’s ashes in those headlights as well.

What she hadn’t prepared for was the glass dandelion, Lumel Studios made for her.

Each spring, she recalled, Bryan had picked the first dandelion of the season for her.

This spring, of course, that wouldn’t happen.

She had shared the store with Luann Baker-Johnson of Lumel Studios, who then produced a glass dandelion with some of Bryan’s ashes put into the flower.

Others in the community have also marked Bryan’s life with their own tributes.

Local artist Pat Ellis produced a drawing of train tracks showing Bryan driving off into heaven. (Bryan was well-known for his work with the Miles Canyon Historic Railway Society in maintaining and operating the waterfront trolley and helping out at the Copperbelt Mining Museum.)

He was also honoured with a number of volunteer awards for his work in the territory.

On Canada Day, on her husband’s behalf, Donna is set to accept a Commissioner’s Public Volunteer Service Award for his dedication to transportation in the Yukon.

It’s in every day encounters that it’s clear to Donna just how missed Bryan is.

Many stop her when they see her to ask her how she’s doing and share just how much they miss Bryan.

“He was loved by everybody,” she said.