It was a sunny Wednesday afternoon, I was in town doing a few jobs, Miss Lulu was at daycare and Bella Boo with her familycarer. My car was being serviced and I was running behind schedule. The car was taking longer than it was meant to and as I was waiting around for it to be ready, kept thinking that there was something that I should be doing...... After a horrible sinking feeling, realised that Augie had gone home on the bus but there wasn't anyone to meet him... Now ours isn't your standard bus stop, it's in the middle of a gravel road and maybe a car or three a day would pass, no bus shelter nearby and 5kms from our house, and there isn't any mobile phone service.... Nearly too far for me to walk, let alone a 6 year old boy whose day on the bus started at 7.25am.
After I pulled my heart from the ground, all of these thoughts ran through my head, he's left out there by himself that he'd be in tears, a random person (not that likely considering the lack of traffic) could have picked him up... Then I rang my mother in law, who like a 'supergranny' travelled at the speed of light to get to the bus stop. And in the meantime I wiped my tears and headed home not knowing what state I was going to find Augie....
Well it's fortunate that he's grown up to be a resilient child, our kindly bus driver patiently waited for 35 minutes for someone to arrive (ours is the last stop)... and then as he drove down the last 5 kms to our house met 'supergranny' on the road. You see he didn't want to drive to the house because he would have missed me on the road and he was worried I'd be concerned that the bus wasn't at the stop (little did he know I was 50kms away) and he also didn't know if there were any adults at koolaman as he wouldn't drop Augie off and leave him to his own devices..... God bless him!
As for Gus' emotional state, he had a great trip home, wasn't concerned at all, in fact he enjoyed it as he had an uninterrupted ear with the bus driver and the bus driver said that he shared many an interesting story (not sure if I like that or not).
Since that fateful day there have been a few systems popped in place! I have a daily alarm on my phone for pre-school pick ups, school pick ups and bus pick-ups! And it goes 15 minutes early for me to make sure that I have enough time to pop arrangements in place, if they aren't already. The bus' UHF radio has been repaired and the bus driver can call up the houses or the boys in the paddocks if needed and a UHF radio has also been installed in the car. And finally everyone at koolaman are made aware of any changes to the bus routine..
Have you ever forgotten something very important? I'd love to hear your thoughts....
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| Arriving at the bus stop, and I'm there to take him home! |
