BUS DRIVER TAKES TIME TO TAKE CARE.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

BURBANK - Her name is Miriam Pereira and for the last 17 years she's been driving an MTA bus in this city without much fanfare.

She gets up at 3:30 a.m. to start her shift at 4:47 a.m., driving the 154 bus back and forth on Oxnard Street and Burbank Boulevard through the Valley. At 1:15 p.m., she clocks out and goes home.

She's not crazy about the hours, but they allow her to be home when her 8-year-old son walks in from school. She doesn't want him coming home to an empty house.

About a week ago, Mimi, as her friends call her, ended her route a little late. At one of her last stops there were about a dozen people standing there anxiously as Mimi opened the bus doors and told them to watch their step.

They didn't want a ride, they said. They wanted her to get off the bus for a minute. They had something they wanted to give her.

Mimi recognized a few of the faces, so she complied. Pat Marquet stepped forward to hand her a big bouquet of flowers, then Susan Bowers, executive director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, handed her a fancy certificate that said Mimi Pereira was someone very special - a VIP.

The bus driver started to cry. All the people, including the passengers on board, started to applaud.

That's when 21-year-old Erika Marquet, Pat's developmentally disabled daughter, stepped forward to give Mimi a hug.

``Thank you,'' she whispered in her ear.

It was early August, the first time Erika caught the 154 bus by herself to go to work at the first place that would give her a chance, the Burbank YMCA.

No trainer accompanying her this time from Work Training Programs Inc., which helps developmentally disabled adults assimilate into the workplace. No mom, either.

Just Erika by herself, and the woman behind the wheel of the 154 bus keeping a close eye on her in the rear-view mirror.

It was maybe the second or third week of riding alone when the city started some construction work at the stop where Erika waited for the bus every morning.

It threw her off, all this noise and activity at the normally quiet bus stop. It disoriented and scared her.

When Mimi pulled her bus up to the curb that first time, she knew something was wrong. Erika was across the street, afraid to walk by the construction work to get to her bus stop.

Mimi parked the bus, and told her passengers she'd be right back. Then, she walked across Burbank Boulevard and took Erika's hand, leading her safely onto the bus.

The second time it happened, Bus 154 was running about 10 minutes behind schedule. Didn't make any difference to Mimi. Erika came first.

``Mimi makes light of what she's done for my daughter, but it was very important and touching,'' Pat Marquet said Thursday.

Sometimes, it's a scary world out there for young people like her daughter stepping out into the workplace for the first time. Without people like Mimi Pereira to be there for them, it could also be dangerous.

``She didn't have to stop that bus, get out, and do that for my daughter, but she did,'' Pat said. ``That tells you all you need to know about what kind of woman she is.''

Mimi's boss at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agrees. ``When we first heard about the chamber honoring Mimi at one of her stops, we were all really proud,'' said Carl Downs, supervisor of MTA's Division 15 in the Valley.

``Being a bus driver can be a pretty stressful job, and for one of our drivers to be recognized like this sent a good feeling through this place.

``Helping this young woman takes priority over any schedule,'' he said.

When I caught up with Mimi on Thursday, she was a little surprised and embarrassed anyone would want to write a story about her.

She still doesn't think she did anything special, that it's just part of a bus driver's job to look out for those special passengers who maybe can't look out for themselves, sometimes.

``It made me feel good, though, having all those people waiting for me at that bus stop to thank me,'' she said. ``And to get that hug from Erika.''

Her name is Miriam Pereira and for the last 17 years she's been driving an MTA bus in this city without much fanfare. Not anymore.

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Bus driver Miriam Pereira believes helping her passengers is worth a few minutes' delay on her cross-Valley route, and that approach has earned her high praise and hearty thanks.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer