00:00We got a notification from our camera saying there's a child sitting on the edge of your driveway.
00:05I was a little nervous that some old person would come out and yell at me, say something like,
00:10get off my lawn. We were in the hospital early September for his chemo infusion. We opened up
00:17the camera and there's this child sitting, looked like a middle schooler. Cars were just zooming by
00:22and we're like, well, that's not safe. That's where the district signed my bus stop. I'm just
00:28following my bus driver's word to stay there. But eventually it became my little routine to stay
00:35at the corner of the driveway. My husband had the idea of, hey, why don't we get a bench and
00:39kind of pull it away from the busy roads. And while we were in the hospital, we went ahead and
00:44ordered
00:44a bench off of Amazon. We got home Friday and that Saturday we put the bench together and put it
00:50out
00:50there. She first noticed it the following Monday. I just saw the bench, told my dad, they left the
00:56bench. And of course he thought it was probably just something they were using for it. I shouldn't
01:02probably sit on it. But that quickly changed when I pointed out the bus stop sign. I was literally
01:08jumping with joy.
01:18One day when I headed home from school, I thought of making a thank you note because of how nice
01:23their actions were. Eventually it became an exchange of notes and gifts, like her leaving
01:28meat potato chips while I left her flowers and notes. I found the note on our door and I brought
01:34it in
01:34and I FaceTimed with my husband in the hospital. I read the note and he's like, we need to write
01:39her
01:39a note back. So I got a paper and pen and we came up with a response and that's how
01:45we ended up calling
01:46our bus kid and we were the bench people. Then we got her the library. It was the weekend when
01:52I saw her
01:53adding the little library. I felt so interested and curious all day that when I headed home, I
01:59specifically asked my mom to stop so I can look. It was just the sweetest thing. She was so excited,
02:04jumped up and down.
02:10I first met her one day. I got home before she did. I knew she was about to pull in
02:16and I saw dad
02:17pull her, turn around and park. So I took that chance to go outside and I met with dad first.
02:23Probably five minutes was talking to him and then we saw the bus coming up and that's when she got
02:27off
02:27the bus and I first saw her. She was so excited. She's like, it's so great to finally meet you.
02:33You could tell she wanted to just give me the biggest hug. Having my own little bus stop helped
02:38me feel sane and made me look forward to going on the bus every day. I sure hoped for this
02:46little
02:46adventure that we both made is that I get to stay with the bench for at least until I graduate
02:55and
02:56hopefully see more kids on that bench and get to meet Maren and her husband, the kind people who
03:03showed me kindness. Just a little bit of kindness can go a long way. When the audience first said,
03:09hey, you know, this would make a great children's book, we got the thing and that that's a great idea
03:13and we decided to publish it. It's just so heartwarming to see how many people are like,
03:19you've inspired me. I have a bus stop. I'm going to buy a bench and make it a little more
03:23comfortable
03:24for the students waiting. So if I achieve that, then that's wonderful.