Vern Hauser Died A Week Ago

Vern was Emma's bus driver. At 4, she is belted into a child's seat on the bus and it was my task to unbuckle her and escort her off of the bus every afternoon. So I came to know Vern, who was a gentle, dedicated man. On the first of February, he told me he would not be driving for the next 4 weeks because he was going to the hospital.

March came, but no Vern. Then April came with the same result. Emma was worried and so was I, frankly. And a new bus driver appeared, followed by a notice of his death in the local paper. I stopped at Katie's office and she told me she was thinking of taking Emma to visitation hours for Vern. Emma was just so full of questions about Vern. And Emma, Katie and I made the trip to Mt. Sterling last Thursday. On the trip there Emma drew a picture of Vern.

The line was long and continued to grow longer as we spent nearly and hour and a half slowly moving forward. Emma held up well. I was hoping for a closed casket, but open it was. So Katie was preparing Emma to see Vern sleeping and suggested that the first thing she should do was give his wife her picture of him. "NO, Mama! First we say goodbye to Vern. Then we say hello to his wife and THEN we give her the picture!" And that is what we did.

I thought that Vern was older than I. And he was. But only by 3 weeks! This struck quite close to home for me!