The last stop

TRENTON - When Ken Coady first started driving a bus for Acadian Lines, some of his customers were fresh-faced college kids enroute to their campuses in Halifax or Antigonish.
Years later, Coady was still taking those customers where they needed to go.
"Once in a while, somebody would get on the bus and say to me 'are you still driving? You used to drive me when I was going to school,'" said Coady. "I said to my wife, 'people I drove when they were kids will get on my bus with hair whiter than mine.'"
After 41 years, Coady is retiring from the business. He made his last route from Halifax to Antigonish on Saturday. When he arrived at the Irving in Blue Acres following his shift, his family was there to greet him in a stretch limousine.
Coady was just 23 when he first got into the business.
"I went wherever I was needed, all over the province until I had enough seniority and I could pick my run," said Coady, who lives in Trenton. "In 1980, I took the Halifax to Antigonish route, and that's what I had been doing the last 27 years."
Coady is retiring to spend more time with his family. Maybe he'll do a little travelling, too. He admits he never expected he'd stay in the business so long. "I figured I'd see where it goes."
Coady says he'll miss it but he's ready to walk away. He says simply, "I made up my mind that it was time."