“I want you…to drive the bus.”

“Just have your husband take it home and you can try it. I know that you can do it, and the kids will need transportation.”

Fr. Roger Kaffer, Providence High School Principal

For eight years, the lady drove a school bus from South Kankakee St. in Wilmington to Providence High School in New Lenox, Illinois, a distance of about 25 miles if you included the side trip out the Peotone Road blacktop to pick up some farm kids. There was also some meandering around the southeast side of Joliet to collect a few more kids.

When she arrived in the high school parking lot, her duties shifted to her job in the library where she toiled for the rest of the day. Then, it was back in the bus to return about 25 youngsters, retracing back to the bus stops in reverse order. For most people, nine hours on the job would be assessed as a good day’s work.

But there was still work to be done.

With five kids at home and a husband toiling in private higher education that required travel, supper still had to be prepared. Then she went to yet another job at the local store as a pharmacist assistant for another three hours. She would be back to her house about 9:30 and get enough rest to start the routine again the next day.

Weekends were times of some relaxation, housekeeping, and watching kids’ baseball or basketball games. Except for the times when the high school student-athletes might need transportation to an away game.

From some vantage points, driving the bus might have been considered as the most relaxing part of her 13-hour workday. Not that there would be times when her youthful passengers might create louder than usual conversations or cause unruly distractions to the driver. But all in all, sleep-deprived students would generally engage in more lethargic periods for 50 minutes.

In fact, driving probably did create a sense of satisfaction to the point of making each day quite the same – except in inclement weather. Driving rain, wind, and snowstorms sometimes rivalled careless drivers as the most menacing aspects to the bus driver. But overall, driving probably represented the most peaceful time of the day. But that hadn’t always been the case.

A Little History

Until she was 30 years old, she hadn’t driven any vehicle, much less one that required shifting five gears. Driving a car required the process of 1) selecting drive, 2) stepping on the gas, 3) slowing down, and 4) stopping when necessary. When she was younger, her parents had thought that driving a car was an optional skill for young women.

In order to help pay for Providence High School tuition, she had taken a job as assistant to the librarian at the school. Along with the Wilmington area students, she would be a fellow passenger on the school bus, returning late afternoon to prepare a meal and then go to her pharmacy job. All was well until the principal, Fr. Roger Kaffer, thought it would be a good idea for her to succeed the retiring bus driver, Darlene. 

The lady resisted, but the persistent priest persuaded her to at least think about it over the summer. (One didn’t easily refuse any request from the future bishop.)

“Just have your husband take it home and you can try it. I know that you can do it, and these kids will need transportation.”

Summer, 1978

For the months of June and July, the yellow bus was parked on the street, visible from her second story bedroom window. So it was – a daily morning reminder – that the bus merely sat there patiently awaiting a time when the lady would take it for a trial run. 

The only other adult in the house, the husband, had driven a manual transmission since he was 12 years old, so it was incumbent upon him to take the role as trainer and teacher to a woman who only a few years ago had not driven. Even a car.

August 1978

For those who have never driven a school bus, you should know that there are requirements beside steering, shifting, accelerating, and braking. Approaching railroad crossings meant extending the sign (left hand), activating the special flashing lights (right hand), and opening the door (right hand) in addition to coordinating two feet among three floor pedals. For a new driver, this activity represents quite a challenge and responsibility. But take that process and add a road incline at the top of the crossing. Even an experienced driver at first would struggle to integrate the moving parts. 

The first attempts at driving the bus were fairly positive until she reached the railroad crossing on Kahler Road. Try as she might on the incline, either the engine died, or the bus retreated. After several failures, with time and patience expiring, she dejectedly escaped through the open door with the intention of walking back home on the lonely gravel road. This, despite pleading reassurances from her equally frustrated mentor/husband.

Day after day, the lady persevered as she always had with previous life challenges until she was ready for her driving test. She passed the test on the first try and was ready for prime time.

September 1978: first day of school, 6:45 a.m.

Neighborhood kids are getting into the bus, the newly ordained driver is at the wheel ready for her inaugural trip to Providence High School. Unfortunately, a heavy morning fog had descended on Wilmington and the stop sign, half a block away, can barely be seen. Undaunted and with tears in her eyes, she stares ahead and is set to go. The now-successful mentor/husband, stood outside the door, and says with a crackly voice, “You will be fine. Just take it easy and call me when you arrive. Love you.”

Years went by and she experienced a few incidents outside her control but managed just fine. There was the snowstorm when a slick Peotone Road pushed the bus toward the ditch. The youthful passengers cheered with the thought of a free day, but a farmer saw the distressed bus, called for help, and a substitute bus was sent. (Of course, there were no mobile phones at the time.)

December 1986

After eight years of bus trips, library work, and pharmacy assistance, the veteran lady bus driver agreed to join her husband in the mountainous West. 

“Under one condition: I will not be driving a bus – any bus – anymore. Agreed?” 

“Agreed. Welcome to our new home in the West.”