One day this week I happened to be on a bus that was making a stop at the local sheltered workshop. It was early in the day when I got on the bus, at the beginning point of a route. As the bus stopped several places to pick up passengers, I saw some really kind gestures extended toward the people who were getting on the bus. At one stop, a gentleman who must have been a houseparent of some sort had three passengers in his car, all of whom had some sort of impairment. He and the bus driver helped each one onto the bus. Another passenger came forward to help secure one of the riders who needed some help with a seat belt.

And on went the little kind gestures. The driver was aware of the situations of just about all the passengers. It happened that I wasn't absolutely sure which of two stops was closer to my destination, so I asked. She told me, then said she'd make sure I got where I was going, and she did---I literally got taken to the front steps of the building. She also made sure I knew where the bus stop itself was (about a block away), and that I had a copy of the schedule.

I easily got to the bus stop for my return trip a few hours later. The bus arrived, and I got on and paid my fare. I mentioned to the driver that I was going to a certain stop, and he said that the driver from the earlier trip had told him to be on the lookout for me---and where I would probably be going. As I wrote that I realized it might sound a little creepy, but it wasn't at all. The two drivers were just extending the same courtesy to me that they extend to all the passengers. And I felt honored.

The return trip also went by way of the sheltered workshop, where a couple of the early morning passengers joined us for their trip home. The driver on this run was as kind to the passengers as the earlier driver had been. And when we were about a block away from my stop, the driver asked me if the stop itself were close enough to where I was going. A pleasant end to the day for me.