I remember riding the bus to and from elementary school when I was a kid, but I couldn't tell you the name of any of my bus drivers, and, well, we just haven't kept in touch. They did their job and nobody really thought much about it.

Since my kids have been riding their bus to and from school, we have been blessed with an amazing bus driver named Yvonne. She's been cheerful, accurate, loves our kids, and has made riding the bus so much fun that my kids don't want us to drive them.

Recently, she became sick with cancer, and she's on the mend, but we have missed her greatly. I was at the bus drop-off point a few weeks ago. My kid and some others got off the bus, and one of the neighborhood kids walked by me, clearly in a grouchy mood, and told her mother that the substitute bus driver is not a "house dropper".

I knew what she meant: Yvonne would take extra care to drop kids at or near their houses instead of making their kindergarten legs take them from the bus drop-off point to their home. There was recently a news story about a great bus driver, I think on the East coast, who made sure that kids got home safely. If somebody was at the bus drop-off point and no kid knew who that was, the driver would drop each kid off at his or her home and wait until the kid was safely in side.

Yvonne is that kind of person. She is a house dropper. And I post this wishing that her health be restored quickly and fully.