She was the last person the kids saw before going to school each day, the one to greet them after a long day of learning, and the one to deliver them back home safely. After 25 years, Genola resident and Nebo School District bus driver Susan Ogden is retiring, leaving many students and parents both saddened and grateful.
“I asked her if she could just do it one more year,” Jennie Carter said.
Ogden had driven all of Carter’s kids to school from kindergarten on, and she has a son who has just one more year of riding the bus to school. Carter said that her son Cody had a special relationship with Ogden that will be difficult to replicate. Ogden agreed as she reminisced on the special moments she shared with “one of her favorite little boys.”
“Carter and I used to have a fist bump thing every time he got off the bus, and he said to me, ‘why can’t you just do one more year?’” Ogden recalled.
Ogden made it a point to make sure that all who rode her bus felt safe and loved, and it was evident in a recent retirement party, that she had a positive impact on so many.
Ogden said that she grew up riding the bus to school, and that driving the bus in the same community has been a positive experience.
“I had to ride the bus from Genola to Payson and to Goshen when I was in elementary school, and then in high school we went to Payson, and so I kind of did the Genola, Payson, Goshen route,” she explained. “I started driving my own bus in ‘98, and I did all grades, even kindergarten. I am a third generation bus driver from Genola. My grandma, grandpa and my dad all drove buses.”
Riding and driving buses may be in her blood, but loving children is very much near and dear to her heart.
“You know, you have to treat them as your own,” she said. “They were all my friends. They would fight to see who got to sit in the front. I didn’t have to tell them to come to the front if they’re naughty because they sat in the front to talk to me.”
Carter said that she greatly appreciated knowing that not only were her kids safe on Ogden’s bus, but they were also loved. Carter spoke about a time when life circumstances changed, making it difficult for her to get her kids to school, and Carter arranged to have her children ride her bus.
“Susan went to bat for me and my kids and she always kept track of them,” Carter said. “If there were bullying instances, she always stayed on top of them. She pays attention to all the kids. … I never worried about my kids with her. I always felt like she had an eye on them. When my son would come home and tell me things that would happen, I could call her and she was on top of it. They all loved her.”
Carter said that she is going to miss having her as a bus driver for her kids, but that she now considers Ogden a friend. Ogden returned the sentiment, adding that she really is going to miss all the kids.
However, it wasn’t just other people’s kids who Ogden drove to school. For years, she drove her own kids to school, and she said that it was one of the things that she loved the most about the job.
“When we lived in Salem, I drove my own kids to school, and then when I got into Genola, I drove my nieces, nephews, cousins and all of them,” she said. “I love having my summers off with my kids and with my family. It was a great job because I could be off with my kids during the summer.”
Tears welled up in Ogden’s eyes as she spoke about one of her sons, and a song that he said reminds him of his mom. The song is called, “Standing Room Only,” by Tim McGraw. In the song, it talks about being someone who is worth remembering. And from the looks of things, Ogden is very much living her life in such a way that the positive impact she has made on the lives of others has been and will be felt for generations to come.
