You’ve heard the saying, “Not all heroes wear capes,” and this hero certainly fits that description.
Renita Smith wears a lot of hats: she is a mom, a friend, a bus driver, and now, a hero.
What started off as a typical day in the single mother’s life would end up being life changing for her and the twenty kids she refers to fondly as her babies.
Being a mother is tough business, this we know.
Being a single mother is even tougher business, and being a single mother who lives paycheck to paycheck and makes ends meet by driving twenty precious little ones to and from school is perhaps one of the toughest gigs around.
But Smith embraced each day with a smile and always put the safety of her own children as well as her twenty bus babies first.
Speaking of her work children, Smith said, “they’re my babies until I give them back to you.”
On that fateful day in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, Renita’s morning route went on as usual, nothing extraordinary crossed her path.
During her afternoon route, however, she noticed a light on her dash that caused concern: the brake light came on out of nowhere.
Before she knew what was happening, her bus had literally caught fire.
Plumes of smoke rose from the windows, and fire shot out of the front of the burning engine.
Without missing a beat, this fearless woman got every single one of her babies in a line and off the bus to safety.
But that wasn’t enough.
After making sure the neighbors who came to check out the scene had a watchful eye over the children who she had previously gotten to safety, she went back.
That’s right; she went back to the burning bus just to make sure that every single one of her children was off the bus and out of harms way.
Speaking modestly of her bravery, Smith explained, “Then I ran back into the bus because I needed to make sure that all of my babies were accounted for.”
When Ellen caught wind of this story, she and Shutterfly partnered together to ensure this hero wouldn’t have to live paycheck to paycheck again.
