KSL TV featured the story of a school bus driver in Utah’s Alpine School District who brings smiles to little girls’ faces by braiding their hair in the mornings.
Eleven-year-old Isabella Pieri lost her mother to a rare illness two years ago. Her father taught her to get herself ready for school, but he still struggled with fixing her hair. After having a short haircut for some time, Isabella resorted to simply brushing her hair and putting it in a ponytail before school.
One day several months ago, she noticed her school bus driver Tracy Dean fixing another student’s braid and asked if Dean would fix her hair too. Dean agreed and braided Isabella’s hair that day. From that time on, she has been styling the hair of both girls almost every morning before they disembark at school.
Dean said that a breast cancer diagnosis seven years ago made her think about who would care for her girls if she wasn’t around. She treats each child on her school bus as if they were her own.
“It makes me feel like she’s a mom pretty much to me,” Isabella said. “And it makes me excited for the next day to see what she does.”
Isabella’s father and a teacher commented that they noticed a lifting of the girl’s spirits since she began experiencing her school bus driver’s kindness.
