What brought a bus driver from the nation’s capital to a yeshivah graduation in Chicago?

HAPPENING IN… CHICAGO

Among the proud parents and siblings who came to celebrate with the eighth grade graduating class of Chicago’s Arie Crown Hebrew Day School, one guest stood out.

“Wait,” whispered one staff member to his colleagues. “Is that Bill?”

The others squinted. Could it be?

They approached him, and, sure enough, it was Bill, a bus driver from Washington, D.C. He approached the group of eighth graders, and hugs and backslaps were shared all around.

What brought a bus driver from the nation’s capital to a yeshivah graduation in Chicago?

About one month ago, Arie Crown Hebrew Day School took its eighth-grade class to Washington, D.C. for a graduation trip. The hours on the bus left the boys lots of time to get acquainted with their bus driver, one Bill Ridick. The boys’ engaging personalities and middos tovos captured the bus driver’s heart, and the rides were soon filled with fun, laughter, and much conversation. When the trip ended and the bus pulled up to the airport, the boys and the bus driver bid each other a very emotional farewell, not expecting to see each other again.

Except they would. One month later, Bill surprised the boys by showing up at their graduation. He’d witnessed firsthand what kind of education these boys got and wanted to celebrate this special milestone along with them.

Following the graduation there was a kumzitz. The graduates linked arms with their rebbeim and sang, joined by a bus driver from Washington. He may have been an outsider, but when it came to appreciating the heights these boys had reached, he had inside knowledge.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 915)