Lonely Little Girl Asks Elderly Bus Driver to Help Find Her Sick Grandmother – Story of the Day

While driving his bus, Corey saw a little girl on the side of the road and decided to help. She was fearful but showed him a note explaining that she needed to find her grandmother. The older man drove her to the hospital and discovered the shocking reason why the little girl was alone on the road.

Corey McCarthy was in his 70s, and he was still driving the same bus route in Buffalo, New York. He was way past his retirement age, but he loved his work and wanted to do it for as long as possible.

It was a snowy night, which affected the roads and made him work longer hours than regular. Luckily, he was finally done and was on his way to the bus parking lot when he spotted a little girl walking on the side of the road. She couldn’t have been older than six years old.

It was dangerous, so Corey pulled to the side and stopped the vehicle. He opened the door and called out to the girl. She jumped, startled, and almost squeaked. But then, she raised her eyes, and Corey could see the fearful look in them. She was also holding one of her arms with the other as if she was hurt.

“What are you doing here alone on such a night?” the older man asked. The little girl didn’t want to answer and looked away. “Don’t worry. I just want to help out. Please, I’ll take you to your parents or a police station,” Corey insisted, trying to approach the child but worried she might start running off. It was freezing, and the kid didn’t have enough on her to prevent her from the cold.

Finally, it seemed like the girl plucked up her courage and gave him a note. Corey opened it and read a message written poorly in the scraggliest letters he had ever seen. It said that the little girl was Diana Palmer, and she needed to find her grandmother at the hospital. It finished with the line: “Can you help me?”

“Of course, I’ll help you. Come on, get on the bus,” the older man said vehemently and ushered the little girl inside. This would derail his night even further, but he couldn’t leave the girl on her own. His wife might worry, but she would understand when he explained later.

Corey drove to the nearest hospital, hoping to find the girl's grandmother, whose name was luckily on the note as well. The nurse at the reception area confirmed that Mrs. Georgia Palmer was admitted a few hours ago after suffering from a heart attack. She was in surgery at the moment.

“I have her granddaughter with me. She was out on her own. I think there’s something wrong with her arm. I don’t know much about her. She won’t speak to me, but she had a note, and I brought her here,” Corey explained the situation as best he could, and the nurse took the little girl inside to an exam room.

He decided to stay in the hospital and wait for everything to be alright. The nurse came out again and asked him some questions. After answering them, Corey asked, “What’s going to happen to her?”

“Well, I’m not supposed to say anything, but there are some serious signs of abuse, and she has a broken arm, so we have to reach out to the police and CPS,” the nurse revealed and picked up the phone on her desk to make those calls.

Corey couldn’t believe it. He and his wife cared for their children so lovingly and couldn’t imagine someone hurting their own kid. Diana was around his grandchildren’s age, so Corey felt all his protective instincts rise in his heart and decided to stay until some authorities showed up.

Two police officers and a social worker showed up a few hours later. Corey had already called his wife and explained everything. She understood and worried about the little girl too.

Unfortunately, he heard the doctors tell the police that Diana’s grandmother had died during surgery. He also eavesdropped on the CPS lady, and it looked like they already had a file on the little girl. “Please, ma’am. I can’t leave not knowing what’s going to happen with the girl,” Corey told the social worker, Ms. Amanda Gaines.

“Since you saved her from the streets, I’ll tell you. The little girl is going to be placed in a temporary home. She won’t go back to her parents. Apparently, there was a huge altercation after her father got drunk, and the grandmother suffered a heart attack as a result. When the ambulance left, Diana ran away and fell at some point, hurting her arm. That’s what she told me. I’m glad she talked to me because she didn’t say a word to anyone else,” Ms. Gaines replied, her hand flipping something inside her folder.

“My son and his wife are registered as foster parents. May I suggest you call them? They’ll take good care of her,” Corey suggested excitedly. “I’m sorry. I just feel protective of little kids, and this poor girl was in the cold all alone. I’m so mad.”

“That would help me out. What is your son’s name?”

Corey told the social worker, who assured her she would insist on the placement. But she also said that he needed to call her son to check if it was alright. The older man asserted that everything would be fine.

The following day, Diana came to live with Corey’s son, Matt, and his wife, who were ready to welcome her. The social worker told them that the little girl already knew about her grandmother and needed to handle her with even more care. Corey was confident that his son would be able to do it.

After the placement, they discovered that Diana’s parents were addicts, and her grandmother was the only one who protected her. That’s why CPS had not taken her away earlier. But now that the older woman was gone, she needed to be away from those people.

It was for the best, although Diana took a long time to adapt to a stable environment. She also didn’t trust men easily. But after a few weeks, she opened up, mainly because Corey and his wife came around often. She saw him as a savior, and soon enough, he became a grandfather to the little girl.

Although Matt and his wife were only supposed to be a temporary placement, they quickly fell in love with Diana, and she trusted them too. No one had the heart to send her away, even when several couples expressed some interest in adoption. Therefore, they started the process of adoption, which was finalized a year later.

Diana also loved Matt’s children, and soon enough, she was a vital part of the family. But her favorite person in the world was Corey. He was just glad that the snow had extended his workday and was there to help the little girl.

What can we learn from this story?

• If you see a child in need, help them out. It might sound like a no-brainer, but some people don’t take the initiative to help.
• Some things happen for a reason. Corey shouldn’t have been working so late at night at his age. But he managed to save a child, who became part of his family. It was almost fate.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about an older woman who gave all her money to a hospital nurse.

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