School Bus Driver Supports 2nd Grader After His Grandpa’s Death

A school bus driver in Rhode Island is making a big difference in one boy’s life after an unexpected family tragedy. 

Anne Marie Torregrossa of Cranston, a suburb of Providence, has been a bus driver for 46 years, according to local news outlet WJAR. While she has routes all over the city, one of them includes a second grader named Jack Monterecy, whom she first met three years ago on his first day at Oak Lawn Elementary School, per the outlet.

According to Torregrossa, Jack stuck out to her for a special reason: His grandfather, Peter Magnan, stood outside his home every single morning to wave to his grandson as the school bus drove by his house.

“[I’d] look up in the mirror. I’d say, ‘What a special bond he has with his grandfather, to see that every day,’ ” she told the outlet.

Jack’s mother, Caroline Monterecy, told the outlet that her father — Jack’s grandfather — would wave to Jack “rain or shine,” sometimes with signs on special days, adding that “it became a cultural component of all of the kids, not just Jack.”

The kids even sang to Peter on his 75th birthday, per the outlet.

However, when Peter died suddenly this past summer, Caroline said that she and her husband were unsure how to navigate the difficult transition.

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“It was our nightmare. They [her father and son] were so close, it was unexpected,” she recalled, adding, “We had the funeral the day before the first day of school.” 

That’s when she said that Torregrossa stepped up to help fill an important void in her son’s life. She attended Peter’s wake and asked the family if it would be all right to hang a photo of Peter at the front of the bus. 

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“I asked Jack and the family if I could put a picture of Papa with us on the bus so Papa is always with us every day and he’s looking over us,” Torregrossa explained to WJAR.

She added, “I [told Jack], ‘When you’re ready to come back to school, you can be my special helper.’ So, I had a name tag made for him when he came back.”

“She stepped in and filled a gap, and I don’t think we ever expected a bus driver to play that role,” Jack’s dad, Jonathan Monterecy, told the outlet, his eyes filling with tears. 

He continued, “She’s not only played a significant role in Jack’s life but in our lives. When you expect the bus to come to pick up your child, you’re not expecting a support system, and so when Anne gave him this new role and responsibility, not only did it show that she cared about Jack but she wanted the experience he was going to have moving forward to be special.”

While speaking to the outlet, Jack shared that “it’s been hard” not seeing his grandfather, but said that Torregrossa is helping make him feel “better.”  

The elementary schooler even sometimes visits Torregrossa during school breaks and says that he, too, would like to grow up to be a bus driver.

“I feel like I can be the best bus driver like Anne,” he told the outlet.

PEOPLE reached out to Oak Lawn Elementary School for comment, but did not receive an immediate response.