There’s a special bond between mothers and their daughters – one that only they can truly understand.
There can simply be no substitute for paving the way for a young girl to become a woman; it’s a task that borrows its building materials from the very simplest of every day routines.
Take a mother getting her daughter ready for school, for example, or maybe doing her hair. It’s small rituals like those that dads – well, men in general, really – can sometimes be ill-equipped for.
Why? Because often they don’t have any experience in them.
Young Isabella Pieri was just 11 years old when her mother passed from a rare illness.
Her father, Philip, now a single parent, did his best to keep his daughter’s life as normal as possible.
However, one area that he struggled with was learning how to do Isabella’s hair. He found himself occupying the roles of both mom and dad.
Despite doing all he could – and in the process raising a girl who was well equipped to deal with most things – Phillip had no idea what to do with his daughter’s hair.
He told KSL: “I originally just gave her a crew cut because I didn’t know how, and it was all tangled and I couldn’t get it out for anything.”03:03
One day, Isabella noticed that her school bus driver, Tracy Dean, was helping a classmate with her braids.
When Isabella asked Tracy to take care of hers as well, Tracy immediately said yes.
“I can tell she was struggling with her hair,” Dean told ABC News. “We usually do two French braids first and once in a while she just wants one braid. I also taught her how to brush her hair. “She’d get on the bus and she’d say, ‘I brushed my hair. Does it look good? I’ll say, ‘You did awesome.’”
Knowing that Isabella had lost her mother, Tracy had no problem beginning to help Isabella every morning before school with her hair.
Dean is a mom to four children herself – one of her kids is close to Isabelle’s age. And braiding the little girl’s hair every morning wasn’t a big deal for the bus driver.
“It’s just the way my mom raised me, to be nice to everyone—people who need a little love in their life,” said Dean, adding, “I like to give all of the kids a chance—even the naughty kids.”
Tracey was more than happy to help; she feels as though she needs to be there for the children in her profession.
“You can’t be shy, you’ve got to talk to them,” Tracey told KSL. “You treat them like your own kids, you know.”
For her part, Tracey is happy to help Isabella. She recalls a time when she, too, worried over how her children would get by if she was to suddenly leave them.
“Seven years ago, I found out I had breast cancer, and that’s one of the things that went through my head — who is going to take care of my little ones? Not that my husband couldn’t do it, but you know, that’s what mom’s do. They do their kids’ hair.”
We are truly inspired by the kindness of Tracy Dean, and we are sure Isabella’s mom is looking down at this near stranger’s kindness with gratefulness.
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