Terminally Ill Dad Surprised With Emotional Driveway Car Show

A dad who loves attending car shows but had to stop after his cancer diagnosis was left stunned when his friends and family brought a car show to him. John "Wowie" Perreira, 59, from Watsonville, California, loves car shows so much that days out had become a tradition in the family. Wowie has always been the glue that holds the family together, and over the years he’d take his six kids to attend lowrider car shows across the west coast. In his younger years, Wowie had an iconic Chevrolet Impala he worked on, before giving up his hobby buying cars after having kids. But now his children were older - and attending car shows with him – Wowie purchased a Cadillac that he was hoping to start working on, only to receive devastating news in 2023. Having been diagnosed with lung cancer, Wowie was advised to put the build on hold as he underwent a year and a half of chemotherapy and radiation treatment, his daughter Melissa said. The family thought Wowie was making progress, but in 2025 they were informed that his cancer had spread and there was nothing more treatment could do and he is now on hospice care. Knowing how much car shows used to brighten Wowie's days, Melissa and her siblings were hoping to take their father to a show once more, but accepted that his condition was so bad that he couldn't go. They instead reached out to Wowie's best friend, Maurice, who is in a car club, and asked if there was any way he could help bring a show to their father.