Fellow passengers are describing it as the best 10 minutes they’ve ever spent waiting for a bus.
On Thursday evening, an Edmonton Transit bus driver helped an elderly woman carry her bags of groceries from the bus to her home.
“It’s a usual passenger, a patron, an older lady, doesn’t get around too well,” ETS driver Chad Makar said. “She just usually asks for a little bit of extra help and so I thought, ‘OK, I’ll do so.’
“She had a couple bags of groceries, so I just offered — you know, good will gesture — to take her groceries.
“I didn’t realize her house was just a few yards away. I offered, she was like, ‘great,’ and I just took them up to her doorstep and that’s about it.”
Makar has been a bus driver for about six years but he’s only been on Route 51 for the last few weeks.
READ MORE: Edmonton Transit driver who stopped racist verbal tirade against young women thanked at city hall
Watch below: An Edmonton Transit Service driver who stopped to help an elderly passenger with her groceries is getting a lot of attention. Sarah Kraus explains.
Photos of the kind act were shared on Twitter, showing the driver walking alongside the woman — groceries in each hand — and then jogging back to the bus.
Get breaking National news
The person who posted the photos said it was “the best 10 minutes I ever waited for the bus.”
Others commented on the post, praising the driver for his actions and calling him a “Good Samaritan.”
As of noon on Friday, it had been retweeted 255 times and “liked” 1,197 times.
“Little did I know someone was posting this on social media,” Makar said. “I had no clue.
“It feels pretty good I guess,” he added, when asked about the response. “I didn’t really expect all the notoriety of it all. It’s just… she’s an older lady and I respect the older generations. They made the country great, what it is today.”
Makar said helping passengers with their bags is not traditionally part of an ETS driver’s job.
“No. I guess that’s going over and above. Hopefully, it’s not frowned upon. It doesn’t seem to be.”
He said he’d be “more than pleased” to help this woman again.
“That’s a win-win all the way around, for sure. I don’t know if other people would do it, but if they do, that’s great because it’s appreciated, obviously.
“It’s a lot of negative stories out there,” Makar said. “Sometimes, a small gesture like this is good to… give some people some hope out there that there is some good gestures still being done in society.”
WATCH: (May 9) Calgary police seek Good Samaritan who helped young child
Comments