With a Bright Yellow School Bus, Tommy's Spirit Lives On

As a high school student, I was the type of guy, that administrators and teachers would mark present, even if I wasn't there. While I did enjoy school, mostly to check out the girls who were in my classes, my best subjects were recess and lunch. There were great teachers, including a history teacher, who was also one of the football coaches. I never had a problem paying attention to him, after falling asleep one day. This grossly overdeveloped man, kicked my desk from underneath my gross underdeveloped body, and was known to also throw erasers and chalk at students who snoozed. He was actually a fantastic teacher, and it was due to him that I discovered a love of History, and sort of turned out okay. While a lot of days I would be out at a local park playing volleyball, or eating off campus which was a big "no-no", Tommy loved school more than any person I have ever seen.

Each day started off with the bright yellow school bus, that would show up at our door around 8:30 a.m. My mother-in-law, used to sing to him as it arrived, and my boy would smile a grin that was a country mile wide. These are the memories that I like to cling to, as they remind me of a simple joy, that Tommy loved from Monday to Friday. His first driver was a former nurse, and all of his drivers were fantastic. They loved him, although I do not think they could love him, as much as he did them. You could just see it in his eyes, as he would light up when the bus turned the corner on our street each morning. The driver and aide would greet Tommy, and his arms would flap up and down, with his trademark smile and laughter. As the loading ramp would come down, Tommy would get even more excited, and we'd stand there and watch him on the bus bouncing around.

It seems like a lot longer, than a year and a half ago, that he went to God. The night of November 4th 2009 shall never be forgotten, but it is with a smile, that I remember Tommy's joy seeing that bus every morning. One of the best memories is his bus driver singing "Happy Birthday" to him over the public address system. Tommy smiled and laughed, and as he loved music, he loved the crooning bus driver's singing. The "Wheels on the bus go round and round" is a song loved by kids, and even by adults that haven't "grown up" yet. Everytime I hear this song, or sing it to Tommy's younger brother, I think about our boy. I know he's with God, who's love is endless, and while I have yet to see a Biblical passage that describes buses, I am sure that all is possible in Heaven.

Quite regularly, I run into Tommy's bus drivers and aides. They meant a lot to me when Tommy was alive, and they still do. I consider them to be family members, and sometimes I see one of Tommy's buses still going on down the road. Sometimes I look at it, with both sadness and happiness, as strange as that sounds, and look at where Tommy used to sit. It was always on the driver's side, and close to the back. Often I picture what he would look like right now, as what would be his seventh birthday is coming up in July. Instead of pain, I have to smile looking at those buses. I've seen them parked and touched them, even rubbed my hands by the window that Tommy used to sit in. It brings back good memories, and everytime I see a yellow school bus, I have to think about him smiling in Heaven, with God at the steering wheel.