Bus Driver Turns Hairstylist To Help Girl Whose Mom Died

ALPINE, UT — When little girls like Isabella Pieri lose their moms, dads like Philip Pieri do the best they can to make their worlds as right as possible. Emotionally, times don’t get much tougher for a family. Little things fall by the wayside.

Isabella’s mother died two years ago of a rare disease. Out of necessity the now 11-year-old girl is more self sufficient than others in her Alpine School District in Utah. But her hair was a problem.

That’s where Tracy Dean, a bus driver for the Alpine School District in Utah, comes in. Every day, she braids or styles Isabella’s hair before she gets off the bus.

Dean knows better than anyone what a small gesture like that can mean.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago. Who would “take care of my little ones?” she wondered. That included making sure the things that can make young girls feel awkward aren’t issues, like untangling and fixing their hair.

“Not that my husband couldn’t do it, but you know, that’s what moms do,” Dean told KSL-TV.

Isabella’s hair had been her dad’s nemesis. Out of frustration, he had it cropped short, like a girl’s version of a crew cut, because “it was all tangled and I couldn’t get it out for anything,” he told the TV station.

Isabella took charge of her hair after that and let it grow. Her dad leaves for work before she gets on the bus, and Isabella's styling routine involves a quick brush-through before tying her hair up in a ponytail. When she saw her bus driver styling another girl’s hair, Isabella asked if she’d mind helping her out, too.

“It makes me feel like she’s a mom pretty much to me,” Isabella told KSL. “And it makes me excited for the next day to see what she does.”

Dad is pretty excited, too.

“Tracy didn’t have to step up, but she stepped up to help out,” he told the TV station. “I was amazed.”

On Facebook, one person said Dean’s decision to help the girl out is characteristic of the many ways support staff members look out for kids in the Alpine School District.

“Tracy is not alone,” Don Fitch wrote in a comment. “There are many drivers and aides within the school district that go the extra mile with their students!”

File photo by Shutterstock