Sandra Goodman had just gotten her nails painted pink and was already planning her Labor Day weekend getaway with her husband at their lakefront camper in Alabama. Watching the birds and ducks from her rocking chair on the shaded deck always put her mind at ease. It was her happy place.
A week before the long-awaited trip, Goodman woke up last Friday at her regular time of 4 a.m. to enjoy a cup of coffee before getting into her school bus to pick up her students. Her enthusiastic wave and welcoming smile were often the first things the children saw in the morning.
But as students and staff flocked back to Landmark Christian School on Monday, that infectious smile was missing. The 66-year-old was tragically killed last week when her school bus rolled onto her in the campus parking lot, trapping her underneath.
The Fulton County private school community is now in mourning after the loss of their longtime driver and friend, who they say invested in the stories and futures of everyone she met.
“(Sandra) would say to me, ‘You cannot get sick, you cannot go before I go because I cannot do what you do,’” her husband, Ray Goodman, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an exclusive interview Tuesday at his home. “I would say, ‘I’ll try my best.’ And look what happened — now I’m lost.”
Having driven for Fulton County Schools since 1985, Sandra retired in 2016, only to return to the profession four years later at Landmark. Her return, though, did not mean a complete loss of free time.
Sandra, a mother of three, and Ray relished their weekends at Lake Weiss, where they recharged after a long week of driving children to and from school.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
That same two-hour drive was planned for this weekend, but instead, the grieving widower had to plan for today’s funeral.
Flipping through pictures of Sandra on his phone while sitting on a blue couch in their dimly lit living room earlier this week, Ray said he would forever recount the final five minutes he saw his wife.
A few hours before the accident, Ray had stopped by to see Sandra after she called him asking him to bring her lunch. It had been a busy day and Sandra had not been able to get herself some food.
“There’s probably a reason she forgot her lunch just so I could see her again,” he said with a wide smirk.
Fairburn police officers were called to the school parking lot that afternoon and found Sandra underneath her school bus. Authorities believe she left the vehicle in gear before stepping off. It then rolled forward, trapping her underneath.
Landmark Head of School Jason McMaster, who was at the scene for more than six hours, had taken his first day off in 18 months that Friday to spend time with his father. The two planned to attend the Landmark football game that evening.
Then he received a call around 3:20 p.m. that there had been an accident on campus.
“I could hear the ambulance sirens in the background ... and I literally just dropped everything ... and we went straight to (campus),” he said.
McMaster recounted hugging Ray even though the two had known each other only in passing. Ray, meanwhile, refuses to discuss that day in-depth.
This week, he opened up his home to Sandra’s lifelong friend, Penny Peppers, who has been helping him get back on his feet.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Clutching a stack of printed photographs she planned to take to Sandra’s funeral, Peppers recounted the numerous times the pair would go roller-skating together since meeting in seventh grade. In white skates with pink wheels, Sandra could be spotted doing laps around the rink, her teased brown curls trailing behind her as she danced and skated to 1970s rock under the vibrant lights.
“She would skate so fast that I don’t know how her feet would not get caught up on each other. She was a natural,” Peppers recalled.
A few years later, a 21-year-old Ray met a 26-year-old Sandra at a club. He took his shot after getting a glimpse of Sandra sitting at a table across the dance floor. Six months later, Sandra put on a baby blue dress and married Ray in her parents’ living room.
“I remember somebody said that day she robbed the cradle,” Ray said with a giggle as he reminisced about their wedding, noting 40 years had already passed by.
After all the good times they had together, the memory of police tape and patrol vehicles surrounding Sandra’s bus in that crowded parking lot still haunts Ray. As he recounted his arrival at the scene, his shoulder immediately slumped and his smile completely faded.
He simply wanted to see his wife one final time.
“The policemen stayed with me the whole time. So they wouldn’t let me see her. They wouldn’t let me go over there, which I begged and pleaded, but you know,” Ray said, staring at the ceiling, ready to change the subject.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
That afternoon, Landmark girls varsity basketball coach Lady Hardmon Grooms’ phone was flooded with text messages about the accident from her players. It was not until the following morning that she realized her good friend was gone. The two had built a strong relationship during the past year after Sandra began driving the team to and from games.
Grooms said she often joked that Sandra was the teams’ personal Uber and emphasized that she could always be seen cheering on the girls from the bleachers.
Sandra’s impact at Landmark went far beyond the team. Grooms noted that she also often drove students to their classes across the expansive campus every time the bell rang.
“Can you imagine all these kids she always said ‘have a good day’ to, so maybe that one day this kid had a hard day at home and Sandra’s smiling face and saying ‘have a good day’ — she probably did something impactful for a lot of these kids,” Grooms said.
Elisa Lyles, who teaches at Landmark’s elementary school, said she would pass Sandra’s bus every morning while en route to school from her home in Newnan. The two eventually introduced themselves and became close.
Laughing between every few words, Lyles emphasized that Sandra’s bright demeanor always put her in a good mood. She specifically recounted passing her bus, which sported a pink flip-flop decal on the back, every morning when Sandra stopped in Newnan to pick up students. Lyles said she loved seeing Sandra opening the doors while eagerly greeting students with a wide smile plastered across her face.
“I wish now I would’ve asked her: ‘How many kids did you touch with that smile?’ She had the best smile ... and she left a forever handprint in the lives of numerous students,” Lyles said.
Sandra Jean Harper Goodman is also survived by her father Richard Harper, daughters Jennifer Sensing Wollett and Kelly Goodman Cook, son Chad Sensing, siblings Richard Harper, Kenny Harper and Susan Harper Paine, seven grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews, and two dogs, Mason and Mundee.
A GoFundMe campaign that was initiated a day after her death on behalf of Landmark Christian School to help with expenses has raised more than $20,000. Her funeral service will be held at 1 p.m. today in the chapel of Parrott Funeral Home in Fairburn.
“There’s a piece that’s now missing and we’re mourning that — she’ll be missed,” McMaster said. “She sincerely cared about the kids ... was invested in their story.”
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