Riding the Bus With My Sister
Rachel Simon’s true story of spending a year riding local buses with her sister explores the many challenges a family must face when one child is "mentally retarded." Beth is that child, and her two sisters and younger brother realize "...we can never think of a future that doesn’t involve Beth."
But the bus rides don’t begin till Rachel and Beth are in their thirties. Rachel is less than a year older than Beth, so feels that as an older sister she should agree to spend a year living with Beth and her "streetwise code of behavior." At the same time, Rachel continues working as a journalist and college professor. Beth does not have a job to worry about so enjoys taking Rachel on full-day bus rides around the town and introducing her to favorite bus drivers.
In between all the bus trip stories, Rachel reviews their childhood years before and after their parents' divorce. The mother takes care of the four children for several years, but then runs off with another man. She takes Beth with her, but they are not heard from for many years. Beth wants out and finally returns to live with her father and her siblings.
Rachel has other problems to face, too, and this becomes the subplot of the story. She and the man she’d been living with for years finally split up, just before Rachel comes to live with Beth. She is torn between Beth’s romance problems and her own. Beth has her own boyfriend, loves most of her bus drivers, and greets all other "misfits" she runs into.
Through Beth’s "Plan of Care" meetings, Rachel learns that people like Beth have "limited ability to foresee the consequences of their actions." Beth’s habit of painting each toenail a different color, or her singing and dancing while waiting with others for a bus, or her continual talking loud to bus drivers, or more often to herself, often attracts more anger than sympathy. But the all-important principal of self-determination in Beth’s case cannot be ignored.
Rachel Simon’s unusual relationship with her mentally retarded sister becomes an intriguing story and exemplifies her words, "...one person’s tale becomes another person’s teacher." This book was first published in 2003.