Father to auction prized car collection as his kids battle rare disorder

A car for a kidney.

It’s not that simple, of course. And the health issues of Sioux Falls brother and sister Justin and Molly Moser go much further back and are more extensive than that. But to help his children with the medical expenses that have been accruing, especially since Justin was diagnosed with a kidney disease, Harley Moser is selling his Mopar car collection at auction this Friday and Saturday.

And a longtime friend has consolidated his sale of memorabilia — much of it car related — to run at the same time in Mobridge.

Other Moser family friends are honoring their close ties to the family by donating a classic car to the auction. All proceeds will go to Justin, who was placed on the national kidney transplant list in January and every night currently undergoes nine hours of dialysis to cleanse the waste from his blood.

The cars Harley is putting up for auction are both his retirement and savings accounts.

“It means quite a little to have him give up his collection,” Justin acknowledged.

His father doesn’t see it that way.

“It’s not a hard decision,” Harley said. “(Justin) had several (medical) situations this past winter. My lady friend and I were driving down the road, and I just told her, I said I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to start helping the kids out. They’ve done all right through life even with adrenal issues, now there are extreme issues that require more help.”

Justin is the first child born to Harley and Barb Moser. They had married in 1979, and Justin was born 42 years ago. It didn’t take long for the new couple to suspect something wasn’t right, but a pediatrician put it down to new-parent-itis. Harley would have none of that.

“I’ve been around new stock my whole life,” he said. “I said, there’s something wrong with this kid.”

It took an endocrinologist in Bismarck, North Dakota, to give them the diagnosis. Justin had been born with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, or CAH, a genetic disease that affects the adrenal glands located above the kidneys.

At that time, the chances that an infant would be born with that condition were one in 60,000 plus, Harley and Barb were told. Six years later, however, when Molly was born, the couple learned the odds had been against them again. She, too, was diagnosed with CAH.

CAH comes with what Justin’s girlfriend, Kristi Olander, describes as “a cascade of issues” such as high blood pressure and slow healing from wounds. Treatment requires hormone replacement medication, steroids that come with their own side effects. Justin and Molly grew to adulthood, however, and came to Sioux Falls to pursue their careers. Then in 2018, Justin learned something radically was wrong.

That year, Justin went to a hospital emergency room with an injured elbow. That’s when doctors discovered his kidneys were in crisis. He was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, or FSGS, a rare disease that attacks the kidneys’ filtering units. That causes serious scarring.

Justin works as a yard-truck driver for Orion Foods. In 2021, a 15-foot fall at work and the difficulty in healing led him to begin dialysis. Originally, he had to undergo dialysis four times a day, an hour at a time.

Through it all, he has continued to work. Friends have set up a GoFundMe account to help with medical costs, reduced work hours and other issues surrounding the wait for a donated kidney. It could take up to three to five years. Family and friends are being tested for their matchability as potential donors, but even that takes three to six months to learn the results.

In the meantime, Harley worries about his son and daughter, and misses his wife, who died almost 10 years ago of cancer. Harley grew up in the Mobridge-Selby area and lived there until he moved to Fort Pierre after Barb’s death. He was in the cattle business and farmed. Now semiretired, he raises registered quarter horses.

He began buying old Mopar cars — Chryslers, Dodges and Plymouths — and restoring them early in his marriage, using proceeds from cattle sales. Barb learned of his unusual savings account several years later and supported him immediately.

“The segment of cars that Barb and I had collected were late ’60s, early ’70s muscle car versions, big horsepower and a nice look and chrome wheels, candy-colored paint jobs — your oranges, your lime greens, they look like a bag of M&Ms. Eye-catching colors for the younger generation.”

Harley has known Kerry Droog since they were young. Droog, the son of an auctioneer, has his own collecting niche, one that blends well with his friend. He started his collections in the 1980s and for years joked it would be up to his three kids to clean up after him.

In all honesty, though, that’s not what he wanted for them. In addition, he also wanted to be sure a new owner would know some of the history. That why he decided to sell what he calls “all my old gas station stuff and my old cars and some other stuff like old streetlights and pedal-car bodies and a little livestock stuff involved.”

“I’m in the right state of mind and healthy enough to do it,” Droog said. “It’s been a lot of work but a lot of fun. Everything says ‘made in the USA’ on it.”

His children all love what Droog calls “the old stuff.” Each one owns a 20-foot storage container, he said, “and they all know how to stuff them.” The three of them — particularly his son — helped him display his collection so it looks like a museum, he said. Few people knew he had it, however.

Despite a long acquaintanceship, Droog didn’t realize Harley’s children were ill. Putting the auctions together over two days would draw a big crowd, they agreed.

“I welcomed his stuff, and he welcomed mine. Together we should have a really good sale,” Droog said.

Justin and Droog both have the same favorite from Harley’s collection, a white 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner. Another car that will go up for auction also has special meaning. It comes from a family of old friends stepping up to help the Mosers. Shari Haux, her son, Shane Haux, and a grandson, Justin James Haux, are donating a 1969 Ford Fairlane 500 that was cloned to a 428 Cobra jet.

It was the last project of the Haux family patriarch, Fred, who died Feb. 25. He and a friend had purchased it in North Dakota and brought it back to Helena, Montana, to do the work needed. When Fred’s health made it impossible for him to continue, others took up the updating.

“His buddy Howard, Shane and our grandson Ramsey tried desperately to get it finished so (Fred) could have a ride in it, and it didn’t happen. Then our plan was just to finish the car, put the cover on it, put it in storage and then decide what to do,” Shari Haux said.

But after talking one evening with “Justin Mo,” as she affectionately calls Harley’s son to differentiate him from her grandson, the Hauxes decided it should be part of the auction. They called Justin Mo to tell him the news.

“I was actually in the emergency room the night they called and offered that,” Justin said. “It was just tears of joy. Fred’s wife, Shari, always commented that Fred wanted to help in some way and donating a car’s a pretty big way.”

Shari and Barb’s relationship goes back for decades. As a teenager, Shari lived with Barb’s parents. “They saved my life,” she said. She has known Justin Mo and Molly since their birth and suffered with them during their health issues and through their mother’s death.

Harley found the Hauxes’ gift overwhelming.

“I said, Shari, don’t do that; you’ve got kids and grandkids that that car should go to. She said, no, your wife’s family helped me through a tough time period in my life,” Harley said. “It still doesn’t set real well with me. I think they’re going above and beyond. The greatest scenario would be if somebody would buy their car and donate it back to them. It’s a long shot but could happen.”

Shari is at peace with the decision.

“It was hard to see it go,” she said. “But I know we made the right choice.”

Harley knows he made the right choice too. His kids’ health issues hurt his late wife, and he has struggled with it too. He quoted a Moe Bandy song that says, “Let me watch my children grow to see what they become.” The song goes on to request that no one pass on until they are “too old to die young.”

“So, yeah, you don’t want your kids to die young,” Harley said. “You want to see what your kids become.”

With the help of his car collection, Harley will be able to continue to do that.

To learn more

The Droog-Moser auctions will be Friday and Saturday at 12528 291st Ave. It also is online. To learn about the Friday event, visit here. To learn about the Saturday event, visit here