Separated Sisters Reunited Days Before Fatal Iowa School Bus Fire

OAKLAND, IA — Paige Hough was 16 and her sister was only 6 when they were separated by adoption a decade ago. But Hough never lost hope of reconnecting with little sister Megan Klindt, one of two people who died Tuesday in a school bus fire in Oakland, Iowa.

Hough looked for her sister in the faces of strangers she met on the street, and got a tattoo on her wrist with Megan’s initials and an infinity heart. Hough’s life has been difficult, and “Megan was always my happy ending that I waited for,” she told an Omaha television station.

Fate was cruel to the sisters, but at the same time merciful. They did reconnect, by chance, just days before the school bus slid into a ditch as the driver backed out of the Klindt driveway and caught fire. The driver of the bus, Donnie Hendricks, 74, of Carson, was also killed. Investigators are trying to figure out why they were unable to escape the burning bus, and what caused it to catch fire.

Hough said she had cared for her little sister like her own child before she was put up for adoption by the family.

"It was one of the hardest days of my life," Hough told KETV-TV of the day her sister was adopted. "Growing up, she wasn't my sister, she was my kid. I helped take care of her, I changed her, I took her to school, I taught her how to write her name, helped her do her homework. She was my life. She is my everything.”

The long separated sisters were reunited after a cousin spotted Klindt at a mall and texted Hough a picture.

Hough left her job and headed for the mall. Because Klindt was so young when she was adopted, Hough was afraid her sister wouldn’t recognize her. Her fears melted when she called her younger sister’s name.

"She turned around and said, 'Oh my God,' we were crying and she hugged me and it was the best thing that ever happened," Hough told the television station.

They made plans to remain in touch. Klindt invited Hough to her 16th birthday party on Dec. 2. They picked up where they had left off a decade ago.

"There was no missing beats and we all talked. We were so happy," Hough said."I won't forget that day."

The sisters talked the night before the Oakland school bus fire. The cause of the fatal fire remains under investigation. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Pet Kostowski said at a news conference that some 2005 models of the International brand school buses were under recall for electrical system repairs.

As the school bus burned, Klindt’s mother and another sister, Michelle Klindt, tried frantically to rescue to the two victims.

"We just ran out there, and we didn't know what to do, so we just tried to break the windows to gain access to the bus, but we could not,” Michelle Klindt told WOW-TV. "I tried to reach for the bus driver, but he was too hot.”

When firefighters were able to get in the bus, they found Megan Klindt’s body close to the bus driver.

"I would almost say she was up, trying to get the bus driver — get his seat belt off, and it took her life,” her father, Glen Klindt, said. “And she was that kind of person. She would help everybody.”

Megan Klindt had helped bus driver Donnie Hendricks — a nice guy, too, someone everyone liked — before.

"She would always help (Hendricks) count the kids as they got on the bus," schoolmate Bailey Rose, 18, of Oakland, told the Des Moines Register of the Riverside Junior/Senior High School sophomore. The two girls rode the same school bus for two years.

Klindt was always in tune with what her friends were feeling, Rose said.

"There was once when I was feeling down, and she noticed that I wasn't acting right," Rose told The Register. "She came up to me and patted my shoulder and said, 'It's going to be fine.' "

The small community of Oakland is in shock, struggling to comprehend the tragedy, Rose said.

"They've been taking it really hard," she told The Register. "I know that for a fact."

Michelle Klindt described her sister on a GoFundMe page to raise money for funeral expenses as “an amazing young lady.”

“Her family and friends, who knew her best, describe her as loving, kind, caring and with a heart of gold who truly loved her animals and helping people,” she wrote.

The sight of the burning bus with the two victims trapped inside “will forever be in our minds,” Michelle Klindt wrote, “but Megan’s soul will live on forever in the hearts of the family and friends that knew her best.”

Megan Klindt’s siblings and parents are not going to let her tragic death overshadow her life, lived fully even if too briefly.

"She was seriously great,” sister Jessica Carrigan told WOW. “She was every bit your normal 16-year-old girl to a T. Very girly, very tomboyish, very funny — she was definitely the class clown.”

"Every day you say goodbye to a person before you go to work,” Megan’s brother, Daniel Klindt, told WOW. “You know, you never know. It could be the last time you see them, so, cherish that hug. Cherish every moment. You never know.”

Though grieving, Hough told KETV she cannot thank the Klindt family enough for taking care of her baby sister. Below is a slideshow Hough posted on her Facebook page of the two sisters at a happier time. On the post, she wrote:

“I am trying so hard not to be mad the world. At life. To be strong. It took us years to be reunited, only for you to be taken away from me again a week later. I feel like I’m in a bad dream and I just want to wake up. I am so lost and hurt and I don’t know what to do. I love you more than you will ever know.”

Photo via GoFundMe