(ALLTHEMOMS.com) - “I can tell she was struggling with her hair,” the bus driver said.
STOP. GET YOUR TISSUES.
Make them the ultra soft kind with the lotion because this story has all kinds of happy tears.
Utah bus driver Tracy Dean, 47, told ABC News that she noticed an 11-year-old student on her morning route named Isabella Pieri was having a tough time with her hair.
Isabella’s mother, Patricia, died two years ago from a rare brain illness, her father Philip Pieri, told ABC News.
Philip works long hours at a convenience store and he would “attempt” to do his daughter’s hair. He said:
“She’d get mad at me for pulling her hair. I didn’t know how to do it.”
Bus driver Dean noticed the hair struggle.
Dean has four children including her own 11-year-old. To her, it was “no big deal” to start doing Isabella’s hair. She began braiding Isabella’s hair every morning. Sometimes it’s two French braids, sometimes it’s a single braid.
She also taught Isabella how to brush her hair.
“It’s just the way my mom raised me, to be nice to everyone — people who need a little love in their life. I like to give all of the kids a chance — even the naughty kids.”
It changed everything for Isabella and her father.
Braiding Isabella’s hair was a kindness, but it was more than that to Isabella and her father, he explained. It was an outward change that impacted Isabella’s feelings about herself.
“One day [Isabella] came home and it looked beautiful. I call her my princess and she looks the part, she plays the part and her confidence is way up, which is what I’ve been intending.”
