Minneapolis — Nothing gets past Minneapolis Metro Transit bus driver Jayne Arendt-Verhelst on her bus.
But last month, Arendt-Verhelst noticed a problem beyond that. Her bus was approaching an intersection when she saw a woman standing in the middle of the street and waving her down. Even though the woman was not at a bus stop, Arendt-Verhelst violated policy, stopped and let her board.
“When I opened the door, that’s when I really saw her,” Arendt-Verhelst told CBS News. “I saw her head to toe and I was just like, wow.”
The woman, who appeared to be homeless, was wearing no shoes.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like to walk around with bare feet on the hot pavement,” Arendt-Verhelst said. “And just, nobody sees you. She’s kind of invisible, you know?”
But she was not invisible to Arendt-Verhelst, who immediately took off her shoes and gave them to her.
– I knew that you’re not supposed to drive in socks, it’s a big no, but I couldn’t help it, says Arendt-Verhelst, who has been a bus driver for Metro Transit for 18 years.
After her good deed, she contacted a supervisor from the bus to inform her of the unscheduled stop.
“And I told her what I did. And she (the supervisor) said, ‘Well, you don’t have far back to the garage, so keep going.’ I’m like, ‘Okay,'” Arendt-Verhelst recounted.
Several riders witnessed that moment, but perhaps no one was more touched by it than passenger Sarah Seldon, who had been homeless before and knew how meaningful a simple act of kindness can be.
“It really affected me, because it was like, oh my God, she’s seeing this woman,” Seldon said.
Often we are told to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. But in some moments it is even more important to let someone stand in ours.
