From Frederick, Maryland: "Driving Miss Mary," by Nancy Luse for the Frederick News Post

This story appeared in a blog by Mary Luse called Another One Rides The Bus. The blog was published on the website for the Frederick News Post. It used to be among the featured bus blogs featured on the sidebar for Bus Stories under the heading "Elsewhere." Sadly, that blog no longer exists. Below is a copy of Ms. Luse's story, "Driving Miss Mary."


Miss Mary and her walker didn’t make it across TJ Drive in time to catch the #80 and so she stood under a roof on the porch of a medical building waiting for the #60, her default choice.

I had just finished a doctor’s appointment and one last procedure had pushed me past my window of opportunity to catch the peak bus and so I stood at the stop, huddled against a brisk, cold wind, also waiting for the #60.



Miss Mary mauevered herself and the walker down to where I was standing and she fussed about the weather and then excused herself when she uttered the word, “hell.”  It was clear this was a take-charge woman when she motioned to a driver pulling out of the parking lot, asking where he was going and could he give her a lift. He just stared at her.



“Maybe he doesn’t speak English,” she surmised.



The wind was picking up and the darkening clouds didn’t present a pretty picture. It felt like snow.



A woman in a car rolled down her window. “Do you all need a ride somewhere?”



“Oh, no,” I said. “I’m waiting for the bus.”



“I do. Taney apartments, the high rise for assisted living,” Miss Mary said, hustling her walker into the backseat then sitting up front like a queen.