She was a bus driver who answered questions from a curious 5th grader. A decade later, they reconnected — as colleagues

By Chelsea Bailey, CNN

Washington (CNN) — For years, Joy Kenley would open the doors of the Washington, DC, Metro bus she drove to the rush of federal workers and business professionals. Her passengers, she said, would often shuffle on board silently to begin their days in the nation’s capital.

And though she saw many of the same faces every day, Kenley said eventually one commuter began to stand out. He wasn’t a Capitol Hill politician or a high-powered lobbyist – he was a fifth grader, named Sam Mencimer.

And a very curious one, at that.

“I started standing at the front of the bus,” Mencimer recalled to CNN, “and asking lots of questions.”

Kenley agreed – Sam asked a lot of questions. What does that red button do? Where do the buses park at night? How do you get assigned a bus route?

Over time, they developed something of a routine; the precocious 10-year-old would pepper Kenley with questions as she drove him to school, and she said she would patiently answer each one.

“To see this bright-eyed kid at the bus stop,” Kenley said, “I was making his day; he was making mine.”

For nearly two years, as the seasons changed and Mencimer graduated from elementary to middle school, the two fostered a friendship, one bus stop at a time.

Then, one day, Kenley had a question of her own.

“Joy asked me if I wanted a tour of the bus garage,” Mencimer said, a smile lighting his face at the memory. He said he leapt at the chance to finally see “where the buses park at night.”

Kenley took Mencimer and his family on a tour of a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority bus depot and Mencimer said, “I thought that was the coolest thing ever – still do.”

“I got to go push all the buttons that I had been asking about … put the wheelchair ramp down; put my name in the destination sign. All sorts of fun stuff that anybody – from a 10-year-old to adults – would probably find really fun,” he said.

And though he didn’t know it at the time, all those moments with Kenley – the never-ending questions, the bus depot tour – would have a lasting impact on his life.

As he made his way through middle school, Mencimer said he began taking the DC Metrorail instead of the bus and, ultimately, he lost touch with his favorite bus driver.

Over the last decade, Kenley said her route changed and then eventually ended. She would go on to become a Metrorail station manager – helping commuters plan their trips and ensuring travelers’ safety.

Years had passed, but Mencimer said his love of public transit and the Metro never faded. In college, he interned with the agency, and when he graduated, Mencimer took a job as a signal engineer.

Shortly after starting work this fall, a question occurred to him: “I wonder if Joy still works here?”

“And sure enough, I looked her up … and (she’s a) station manager,” he said.

In August, as Kenley was working her station at the end of DC’s red line, a man walked up and knocked on the station manager’s door.

“I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, (he) looks familiar,’ but I didn’t want to be wrong,” she said with a laugh. “And he’s like, it’s Sam. Sam!”

More than a decade had passed, and although he’d grown up, Kenley said not much had changed about Mencimer – only now he was wearing a Metro uniform instead of a school backpack.

“I was excited to see him,” she said. “I’m very proud of Sam.”

For his part, Mencimer said he’s never forgotten the kindness of the bus driver who indulged his childlike curiosity – and now he tries to pay it forward.

“I know that’s how I got here,” he said. “I want to make sure that if somebody else can have that opportunity, I can be the one to make it happen.”

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