Riding The Bus With My Sister

“The Miracle Maker” Summary

Rachel is standing in front of a mirror, admiring her wedding dress. Tucked into the corner of the mirror is a letter from Beth expressing her happiness and congratulations. The letter is signed by all of Rachel’s favorite bus drivers. Rachel thinks about how much has changed over the last year and a half: Rodolpho left bus driving to become a police officer, Cliff quit and became a mechanic, and Jacob struggled with his health. Throughout this time Beth encountered the same struggles with personality clashes and drivers who grew tired of her company. Rachel and Jesse both supported her through her emotions. Beth had a hysterectomy, and her many friends and supporters came to visit her and sent cards. After the surgery, Beth stayed with her father so he could care for her during recovery. Rachel thinks the greatest change has been her own: She is standing in a gown on her wedding day (although she is marrying Sam, not Rick as we might have expected), and it’s all thanks to her time with Beth and her relationship with Rick. Without them she would not have had the courage to go back to Sam.

On this day Beth and Rachel “by incredible coincidence […] became twins again” (339). They are both 41. Rachel looks out the window at the backyard of her newly shared home with Sam, where the wedding ceremony will take place. She sees him and feels the same “love of life that I share with Beth” (340). She thinks of the miracle of their courtship, rekindled 10 months ago, and steps outside to marry Sam. 

“Rachel” Summary

Simon talks about her experience as a writer and an events coordinator at a bookstore. She learned that “most writers have enormous expectations when their books arrive in the world—fame, fortune, friends, fans—and only rarely are those expectations met” (343). So, when Simon was writing Riding the Bus With My Sister, which would be her fourth published book, she had no expectations of it changing her life. However, as she was completing the book, she told her editor, Elaine, that she was moving and getting married. Her editor declared that Simon just had to change the end of her book to include her marriage to Sam. Her editor felt strongly that the book was about Beth and Rachel equally and needed to include Rachel’s true ending: “Was it about Beth, I suddenly wondered, or Beth and me?” (345). As Simon sits down to write the paragraph her editor wants, she realizes, “I hadn’t acknowledged that the book wasn’t just about Beth and her world, but also about me and how my view of the world had altered completely” (346).

Simon embarks on the self-promotion process and contacts groups that might be interested in her book. She contacts the Center for Disabilities Studies at the University of Delaware to ask if they would be interested in a copy of her manuscript, and they respond with an invitation to speak at the school. When she arrives, they tell her how much they love her book and how important it is: “This isn’t just a story of two sisters coming to terms with each other. It’s a story of your acceptance of Beth’s civil rights. This is a book about social justice” (347). Simon realizes that she has become an advocate. She takes this role seriously and continues to educate herself through reading and speaking to people with disabilities and to organizations committed to helping them. She learns about some of the hard truths of the past, such as the law that allowed the “forcible sterilization of people with developmental disabilities” (348), as well as some of the more uplifting acts like “the groundbreaking Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability” (348).

As Simon’s book gains momentum, her friends wonder about the possibility of it being turned into a movie. They ask her who she thinks should play Beth. Simon realizes that if a movie were made, she would want Rosie O’Donnell to portray Beth. She shares this with her agent. Her agent sends the manuscript to many magazines, including the Rosie magazine. O’Donnell reads the book, loves it, wants to make a movie, and wants to play Beth. O’Donnell calls Simon and leave a voicemail saying as much. When Rachel tells Beth the exciting news, Beth replies, “Okay. But a new driver just started and he’s so cool. When can you come ride with him?” (350).

Beth arranges a book signing party in the bus drivers’ room. Beth, Jesse, and Rachel sign books for hours: “It was surely one of the best book launches of all time” (351). Over the next few weeks, Simon attends readings at bookstores in her state. She is surprised to find big audiences. Many people are touched by her book, and they often share similar stories with her as she signs their books. Many people with disabilities hope that her book helps their siblings understand and change their relationship.

Two months after the book’s release, Simon begins to receive and accept speaking opportunities all over the country, “all for places whose mission coincided with mine” (353). She hears many stories and is continually moved to change her own behaviors and attitudes. Because people feel so close to Simon after reading her personal book, they open up to her and tell their life stories. She reaches a point at which she no longer feels the need to share her opinion and instead listens to others carefully.

Simon says that when Hallmark makes the TV movie version of her book, it is exciting, but not the big milestone that people assume it to be. She has fun flying to the set and meeting with all the Hollywood types. She didn’t struggle with changes between book and movie because she “quickly realized that if I couldn’t control my sister, I sure as heck couldn’t control Hollywood. […] It’s their movie, just as it’s Beth’s life” (355). Simon clarifies that the movie did not earn her much money, but it gave her enough to renovate her house with her husband.

She chronicled the remodeling process, which brought out a lot about repairing not just houses but relationships as well, and this turned into her next book: Building a Home With My Husband. After her teaching job was revoked, she started to write the stories of the many people she met along her speaking tours and turned those into a book called The Story of Beautiful Girl. Simon remarks that though there have been many wonderful writing opportunities and professional changes, the biggest change of all is in her relationship with Beth. They have maintained a close and loving dynamic, and Simon feels that “Beth started the journey with a sister. Now she has a better sister. Maybe even […] a good sister” (357).

“Beth” Summary

In 2012 Simon asked Beth to write down what in her life had changed. For ease of reading, she transcribed Beth’s words and corrected grammar and syntax. Beth says that she still loves “to ride the bus. Oh yes I do. It’s fun and never boring. My friends are there and I can get wherever I want. And I can talk! I sit in my seat and talk and my friends listen” (358). Beth has a cell phone now that she uses to text. Beth wants Rachel to text her, but she won’t. She still rides with Jacob, Bert, and Happy Timmy. Jesse moved to a new apartment with new people and started being mean to Beth. Eventually they broke up, and Beth was “so sad at first. I cried every night. It was very hard. But my aides helped me, and the drivers, and you” (360).

Both Olivia and Vera have left for new jobs, so Beth has been through many replacement aides. Beth has some friends in her apartment building whom she likes to watch TV with. She still wears bright clothes and owns 38 pairs of Crocs in all different colors to match her clothes. Beth now goes to the salon regularly and gets her hair colored. She still eats her favorite foods but has given up diet soda at her doctor’s request. She tries to lose weight by dancing and takes a pill for cholesterol. She had another surgery to fix her eyelashes and no more surgeries after the hysterectomy. She is 52 and does not feel old. She still takes pictures of her favorite drivers but uses a digital camera now.

She liked when the book came out, and she carried it with her on the bus so all her friends could sign it. She keeps it and Rachel’s other books on a shelf in her apartment. She thought the movie was nice, but everyone asked her if she got rich from it, which she did not, and she didn’t like being asked. She says she doesn’t care about being famous or not, and she likes the book better because “the book is true” (363). Beth likes when Rachel visits and takes her for ice cream or shopping. She likes to watch TV together while Rachel scratches her back. Beth says that she has talked too long and “that is all I have to say. I will finish with what I say when I get off the bus. Bye. See you later. Adios amigo, or amiga. God bless” (364).

“People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities” Summary

In August 2012, Simon is running late to a conference in Maryland called the Reinventing Quality Conference. It is about 10 years after the book was published and Rachel wants to learn how other people’s lives have changed in that time. She thinks about how annoyed Beth would be at her tardiness. Simon looks at the conference speaker line up and thinks about the difference between where she is now and where she was at her first conference, when she felt uneducated and out of place. She hears people whispering her name behind her and realizes that she is now really part of this group, not an outsider anymore: “I might have arrived late, but right now I have a lot in common with my sister. Just like Beth when she sits on the bus, I have come to feel I belong” (366).

The most notable shift that has occurred since Simon wrote the book is in language. The implementation of people-first language means that as a culture we now refer to someone like Beth as “a person with a developmental disability, while siblings have a name now as well: “typical or ‘typically abled’ siblings” (367). The professional opinion favors moving away from institutions that keep people separated and toward inclusion. Simon gives a brief history of the legal precedents that profoundly altered the way children born with intellectual disabilities live in America, including the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act in 1963, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

The next significant influence Simon notes is the self-advocacy movement, as people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) “speak up on their own behalf to ensure that lawmakers on the local, state, and federal levels, community leaders, service providers, and others in authority consider their perspectives when making policy” (368). Simon talks about the role models she now sees on television and in movies and how that can be very influential to a child with a disability as they develop. She also celebrates the technological advances that help people communicate more easily and function in their daily lives.

She talks about the areas that still need improvement. There are still many states that are not educating to the maximum extent, and some children are still being segregated into separate classrooms. Similarly, for adults the reality does not always match the ideal. Although the ideal is for people with ID/DD to choose their living and working conditions, they are often left without much choice due to lack of resources or direct care workers: Simon also notes that “some states still housing thousands of people in state-run facilities (374), and she goes on to address the failing and defunding of public transit systems, which are critical services for people who cannot drive themselves.

Simon addresses the issue of sexuality: After the publication of her book, Simon heard from many people who explained that Beth’s free and autonomous relationship with Jesse was not always the norm. Rachel met people “whose service providers wouldn’t allow them to have an adult relationship, or who acknowledged their sexuality only insofar as they were taught how to avoid being a victim” (375). Simon learns from the conference that service providers are attempting to make positive changes in this area, but the statistics are still bleak, showing that people with ID/DD are at high risk of being sexually and physically abused. Simon is “dismayed. Helping people learn how to cook spaghetti and keep a savings account but not how to have a healthy romantic relationship is a huge and, it appears, dangerous omission” (376).

Simon is encouraged by what she learns at the conference but leaves feeling that there is a great deal more work to be done, particularly in terms of the way our culture segregates the disabled from the typically abled. She closes the book with the comment, “May all of us be lucky enough to meet someone like Beth. And if she happens to ask us to spend time with her, may we all have the open mind, and good sense, to say yes” (378).