Dude, I am in the same boat (er, ride) as you. My father bought a brand-new 1978 Trans Am, poured his heart and soul into that car... and died a year later, before I was born. You can imagine the sentiment that car still holds for me, since it was the most physical link I had to my father.
My mom drove me all over the place in that car when I was a kid, and I listened to my dad's old Icelandic music tapes in that car. She saved it for me to drive when I turned 16, which I did... I may have been prime dork material in high school, but when I drove that car around the HS parking lot... I was cool.
(I also had to sit on like 3 cushions to see over the steering wheel.) My friends and I had so much fun in that car... I made my own memories with it, and it became MY car, even though the primary link was to my father.
The car has always been housed at home, though, and since I left home (across the country/ocean) several years back now... no one drives it. In fact, since my mom moved out of our old (spacious) house and into a new (suburban cul-de-sac) one, the car has been hogging half the garage and people have to park on the street. She's been wanting to sell it for a long time, but I don't know what to say.
Truly, it's not fair for me to want her to keep it... I don't know when I'll ever be able to drive it again, let alone maintain it and give it the attention it deserves. Right now, she's stuck with the job, and the nostalgia. We'd get a couple thousand for it, MAYBE... but it's worth so much more than that to me. It's just storing and maintaining it that would take so much, and I can't give it right now.
So I'm afraid we are going to have to sell it soon, hopefully to a good owner. After 30 years, man... I know how you feel.