Linda Maples - Wapakoneta Daily Newspaper story for March 1, 2008
Lori's Mom
Driving others to learn
Benefit in late bus driver's honor to raise awareness
By ANNIE ZELM
Staff Writer
As she remembers her mother, a few words and phrases come to Lori Moore's mind. Patience. Persistence. A refusal to complain. A sense of selflessness.
Moore said she believes all were qualities upon which Linda Maples often relied during the course of nearly three decades she spent as a bus driver for the Wapakoneta City Schools District.
"My mother drove a bus route for 29 years, and during that time, she never once put a scratch in the bus or received a speeding ticket, either on the bus or in her own vehicle," Moore told the Wapakoneta Daily News through tears as she sat in the living room of her parents' home on Hardin Pike.
When liver problems and kidney failure cut her life short in November, the 66-year-old bus driver left behind a great deal of precious cargo.
Many of the children she transported knew her from the time they climbed aboard the big yellow bus as kindergartners until the day they stepped off for the last time as they became motorists themselves.
She also left family members who continue to mourn her loss, including her daughter, granddaughter and Fleetwood, her
husband of 51 years. Seeing all of the former students, co-workers, faculty members and friends who came to offer condolences to the family made Moore realize the extent of her mother's impact on the community, she said.
To honor her mother and raise awareness of the illness which claimed her life less than two months after she was diagnosed, Moore is planning to host a bluegrass benefit concert.
Moore, who plays the stand-up bass and regularly performs in a band with her husband, Greg, already scheduled a show for March 1 at the Wapakoneta Moose Lodge and decided to expand it to include a silent auction and matchbook raffle to raise money for the American Liver Foundation and National Kidney Foundation.
"Before mom got sick, our family was never affected by anything like this," Moore said, recalling the four hospitals the family visited as her mother's liver complications and kidney failure progressed, requiring her to undergo dialysis several times per week. "It really opened my eyes to visit the dialysis units at the hospitals we went to and to hear doctors tell me there are more individuals on dialysis than there ever has been."
Prior to being hospitalized, Maples had diabetes for several years - which she controlled with her diet - but was otherwise healthy, Moore said. She exercised daily by walking on her treadmill and tried her best to eat a balanced diet.
On Sept. 19, she began suffering from a headache accompanied by nausea. She was admitted to St. Rita's Medical Center in Lima and later transferred to The Ohio State University Medical Center in Columbus, where she was diagnosed with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) - a type of cirrhosis caused by excess fat in the liver, which causes inflammation.
Her mother also suffered renal failure. The two conditions do not necessarily occur together, but both have similar causes, which include diabetes, obesity and heart disease, said Orelle Jackson, executive director of the Ohio National Kidney Foundation in Columbus.
Due to renal failure, Maples was placed on dialysis and spent 48 days at the medical center.
Dialysis is a treatment that uses a machine to remove waste, salt and excess water from the body. It is needed when a patient develops end-stage kidney failure - meaning they have lost between 85 and 90 percent of their kidney function.
When the family first entered the dialysis unit, Moore said she was shocked to see how many other inpatients were also undergoing the treatment in a unit that runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Maples was later transferred to the Joint Township District Memorial Hospital in St. Marys, which also had a floor filled with patients undergoing dialysis.
Her condition began to improve, and soon she was walking the hospital hallways and participating in rehabilitation exercises, Moore said.
Then one day, shortly after her release from the hospital, Maples began experiencing delusions, and the problems with her liver and kidneys worsened.
In a short span of time, she experienced painful swelling in her legs, known as edema, and gained nearly 85 pounds of fluid, a common symptom in liver and kidney failure. After two more treatments, her physician, Dr. David Emler, told the family Maples' condition was not likely to improve.
"She was told she may last for three days without dialysis," Moore said. "But she was not afraid at all."
Maples returned home with the assistance of the Hospice program at Tri-County Visiting Nurses in mid-November.
Then, on a Saturday afternoon Nov. 17, she died.
Moore took some comfort in the crowds of people who attended the funeral service - a testament of how important her mother was to so many others.
"She just touched so many people, so many lives," Moore said.
Maples planned to retire from her bus route after 25 years but continued working for four more years to establish a college fund for her only granddaughter, Kyla Wireman.
"What amazed me was when it got down to the end, she was more worried about us than herself," the Wapakoneta High School junior said while sitting in her grandparents' living room and studying a photograph of her and her grandmother in a corner of the room, propped up next to a statue of an angel and a blanket featuring an enlarged photo of her grandparents together.
"She told me she just wanted to make sure she 'didn't do anything wrong' raising me," Wireman said. "I said, 'Are you kidding? You're lucky I'm letting you go.'"
Wireman recalled her grandmother taking notes about everything from daily activities to the interactions among the many students on her bus route. She often wrote about the jokes she overheard, which students were friends and who was bullying whom, Wireman said.
She loved dogs, especially her American Springer Spaniel, Annie, and her Cocker Spaniel, Buddy.
She also loved cheering for the Indianapolis Colts and watching NASCAR races.
Transportation Supervisor Dave Tangeman, who worked with Maples for 10 years, said he was amazed by how cheerful and optimistic she was in the face of an illness that progressed so quickly.
"She was a real trooper," Tangeman said. "As an employee, you couldn't ask for anyone better - she really cared about her job as well as she cared about her friends."
In a eulogy he read at her funeral, Tangeman described Maples as a valuable employee and friend who her cared deeply for others.
"She understood the importance of her precious cargo," Tangeman said during the service. "The parents of this community should be grateful to have had someone so caring, who considered her job as a bus driver to be of such great importance."
Tangeman said if he could give Maples one last message via her bus radio, it would be, "nineteen, Linda - thank you for a job well done."
Maples's friend and fellow bus driver, Nancy Craft, described her as a "level-headed" individual who remained calm in almost any situation.
She sometimes used what the two referred to as the "mother look," which seemed to quiet children in their most ornery moments, Craft said.
"The kids knew Linda, they knew the look," Craft said. "They knew when to stop."
As a friend, Craft said Maples had a heart of gold and a love for life that was unparalleled.
"They say angels walk among us," Craft said, "and she was one of those angels."