GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) — For years, people waiting for the bus in front of the Prisma Health OB/GYN Center had to wait on the grass as cars drove by.
“The earlier version of the bus stop really was just a sign up the road that stood about 100 feet from the center,” Chris Turnbull, a nurse practitioner at Prisma Health, said. “That meant that moms and children had to walk along this busy road to get to their medical appointments and then wait in the rain or blistering heat for the next bus.
Nurse Practitioner Deb Clyburn did not think that was right.
“She was always so concerned about them waiting on this busy road with no shelter, sometimes at 40 weeks pregnant,” Cara Ruffman, Clyburn’s daughter, said.
Clyburn began writing letters to Greenlink asking them to build a bus shelter so her patients could have a safe place to wait.
Clyburn died in 2019 before her dream could be realized, but her friends and colleagues continued her fight. The shelter officially opened Wednesday.
“Mothers and mothers-to-be who use public transportation now have easier, safer access to care,” Dr. Kacey Eichelberger, the chair of Prisma Health OB/GYN in the Upstate, said.
“She would have loved it so much,” Ruffman added.
The new bus shelter has seats and a covering and sits further from the road. A plaque honoring Clyburn and her work hangs on the shelter’s wall.
“I know she is smiling down on all of us, proud of what we’re doing for our community and the women of the Upstate,” Ruffman said.
