Hopping on the school bus to get to school is pretty far from exciting.
Unless your bus driver is Arethla Sherman that is.
Sherman is known for being a compassionate and caring bus driver. She has a special bond with all of the kids she drives but she has a one-of-a-kind bond with Anna Hopson.
Anna is 5-years-old. She was born with a rare progressive neuromuscular disorder called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. According to Mayo Clinic, the nerve damage is primarily to the arms and legs.
But the disease hasn’t slowed Anna down nor has it wiped any smiles from her face.
When Sherman pulls her bus up to Anna’s house, Anna can’t help but be filled with joy. After all, she calls Sherman her best friend.
“I love you,” she tells Sherman who just as genuinely, says it back.
“The fact that she always has so much going on in her life but she’s always happy, always bubbly,” Sherman recounts to Steve Hartman for CBS Evening News.
The two became close just last year.
It began when Sherman noticed that Anna didn’t get on the school bus one morning. Concerned, she stopped by to check up on the young girl.
“And I thought, ‘she didn’t have to do that,'” Anna’s mother, Kathleen, said.
But Sherman didn’t stop there. For Anna’s fifth birthday, she decided to decorate the entire bus with birthday decorations.
She also bought Anna a princess dress and a tiara for the big day.
Anna was touched that Sherman had gone the extra length to make her birthday special.
“All this for me?” Sherman says Anna asked as she looked about the bus, admiring the decorations.
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Sherman shares that seeing Anna react the way she did was simply “overwhelming.”
Most recently, Sherman got married and asked Anna if she would like to be a part of her big day. Anna, of course, said yes.
Anna had the honor of being the flower girl for Sherman’s wedding. She even got to share a dance with her father after the ceremony.
What a touching event!
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It isn’t lost on Kathleen how much these moments mean to her daughter. The disease makes a lot of tasks difficult and even impossible to achieve.
“I want her to have as many experiences as she can,” she says before tearing up.
She always wanted to see her daughter in a wedding and Sherman’s invitation allowed her to see just that.
Their heartwarming video has over 133,000 views on Youtube. Several of the comments echo one another. Many say that the bus driver is truly an angel and Anna is a beautiful little girl!
“There was one point during this story that I couldn’t see from the tears filling my eyes. What a beautiful little girl and beautiful woman. We can learn much from them. Their bond is everlasting.”
“God sends Angel’s in every form.”
“She’s no bus driver…she is a BEAUTIFUL ANGEL!!!!”
“Beautiful child beautiful lady beautiful story! Yea I’m crying”
They are quite right! This is an incredibly touching story. Share it with your family and friends if you feel compelled to lift someone else’s spirits!
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