Saturday 26 January 2008

Magic School Bus

When I read in yesterday's Chinese section of MyPaper about Aunty Rosalind, the school bus driver at Henry Park Pri, it is clear that this lady's demise has meant much to many because her life has touched them all. Although just a school bus driver, she took pains to interact with the children on her bus, talking to them, encouraging them and even rewarding them when they do well in their studies. She has even taken time to call up the parents, exchange notes about the children and share parenting tips.

Well, I have not met Aunty Rosalind but I can sense the impact of her life. Aunty Rosalind loved the people whom she met and so in her ordinary ways she had become a most extraordinary person.

I too took the schoolbus in the early years of my primary school days and this was a very long time ago. Yet, I still remember the "go starn" from the bus lady each time she guides the bus in reversing. (Only to learn much later that she was actually using her own version of 'go astern'.) And there was this time when she teased us about our favourite cartoon Little Frog's theme song. A part of the song goes "gu-kua gu-kua" and she asked us why we were singing about papaya which is "muk kua" in Cantonese. There are not many events from the past that I easily recall but these are two of my more vivid memories. I reckon it was the person, not the incidents, that left that mark.

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