SELLERSBURG, Ind. (WDRB) -- At dawn, an unspoken bond becomes apparent between the shadowy figures that line the streets of Sellersburg's Elk Run neighborhood, and the driver behind the big yellow bus that brings them into light.
"We do put trust in our bus drivers," neighbor and father Chip Durbin said.
During the first week of school he and his neighbors proved that is not a one-way street.
Ring Doorbell video captured it all. Students noticed something seemed off about the driver they affectionately call "Mrs. Karen."
"She was in distress," explained Durbin. "The bus had stopped at the entrance of the subdivision" -- the same school bus Durbin's daughter and several other students were already on.
"I was met by two ladies that were already on the bus," he said.
Those neighbors happened to be a nurse and a nurse practitioner. Durbin is a Clark County Sheriff's deputy.
"Her speech was a little bit different, a little bit slower than usual," Durbin recalled.
Pictured: in this frame grab taken from video, Clark County Sheriff's Deputy Chip Durbin describes what happened when the driver of his daughter's school bus suffered a stroke while she was on board with other students. (WDRB image)
What was happening quickly became clear to the people trying to help.
"She said 'you're having a stroke,'" Karen Graves told WDRB from her hospital room. I just lost control of everything. I couldn't make any words out. I was having to use this hand to lift my leg up, to push on the gas. It was terrifying, I didn't know what else to do."
Mrs. Karen's temporary paralysis is gone, and her prognosis is promising.
"We expect her to do very, very well," Dr. Dimitri Laurent from Norton Brownsboro explained.
Still it's hard not to focus on what could've been.
"If I would've continued on, it could've been so much more devastating," Graves said.
"The biggest what if is what if she turned turned out onto Highway 60 up here," Durbin said.Â
"Mrs. Karen" made it out, and so did several students that were there that day, whose names are among many others who signed a big "get well soon" card.
Now a heartfelt thanks to everyone who stepped in when it mattered most.
"I just want to thank them from the bottom of my heart because I feel like they're the ones who saved my life."
Graves' focus now: getting better, getting back to that driver's seat, and back to the people she knows will always have hers.
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