Wareham Boy’s Birthday Saved By Selfless School Bus Driver
A Wareham boy’s sixth birthday was saved by a kindhearted bus driver who went above and beyond to ensure he got to celebrate exactly the way he wanted.
Noah Couture turned six years old on Monday, May 16, and according to a Facebook post by his father, Jon, Noah was “excited for weeks” about bringing in cupcakes for his kindergarten classmates to celebrate his birthday.
His mom, Julie, picked up two dozen cupcakes at the Wareham Shaw’s Supermarket for Noah to bring into school, and Jon assumed he’d just drive Noah into school to help him bring the cupcakes into his classmates.
“He was adamant that he wanted to take the bus. We went back and forth, with me hoping he would relent and him, well, not,” Couture wrote. “I debated overruling him when he half-dropped the cupcakes on the way to the bus stop this morning, but he's got an independent streak and it didn't seem worth the fight.”
Of course, in typical fashion for a newly-minted six-year-old, things didn’t go exactly as planned.
“I watched him drop the cupcakes about three seconds after he sat down. Immediate tears welling up as he looked to me out the window, and as I ran up the stairs to confirm yes, half of them are on the bus floor,” Jon wrote.
Taking some time off from crafting his latest sports column for the Boston Globe, Jon said he ran to the store and got some more cupcakes, decorating them himself with some LEGO candy in the parking lot. He then drove them to the school and brought them to the office.
As he drove back home, he passed the supermarket again and saw something unexpected in the parking lot. Mary Carbone, Noah's bus driver, was at the store.
“I notice Noah's bus is parked at the supermarket, but don't give it much thought…maybe Miss Mary shops then,” Jon wrote.
But when he found out why she was there, it instantly warmed his heart.
“She was buying Noah new cupcakes,” he said.
Apparently, Miss Mary didn't want Noah to miss out on the joy of sharing birthday cupcakes with his classmates, and took it upon herself to make sure the celebration still happened as planned.
It was a moment that reminded Jon that there are still good people out there, and he and Julie are raising Noah to be one of those people.
“It's such a little thing, but really, it's not little at all,” he wrote. “And if I accomplish nothing else, I hope I can help teach him that.”