When the students walking to Bowmar Elementary approach the corner of Bowmar Avenue and Drummond Street Monday, their guardian angel will be waiting.

Diane Graves has been a school crossing guard for the city for five years. She returns to the crossing where she began her career after serving two years as a crossing guard on Mission 66.

“I worked for the Vicksburg Police Department from 1991 to 2006, and I retired,” she said. “I came back out to help my children (Brianna Graves, 15, and son Michael Wilson, who attend Jackson State University). I love people. I’m a people person.”

She became a crossing guard because she enjoys seeing the mix of children and adults.

“I try to brighten their day; have them going to school with a smile on their face and on the parents’ face. I also like seeing the bus drivers,” she said.

“I greet the children with a smile, and when they get out of school, I ask them, ‘How was your day today?’”

Graves’ day is broken into splits, with the first running from about 7:55 to 8:40 a.m. when she helps the children get to school, and then from 3:30 to 4:15 p.m., to help them get home safely. It’s a job that requires her to be out in all kinds of weather, from the searing heat of late summer, when school begins, through the chill of winter and the rainy seasons.

“I just pray through it all,” she said, adding she gets support from passersby, who check on her to see if she is all right and pass bottles of water to her to drink during the warmer months.

“There are some citizens out there concerned about my safety,” she said.

But the toughest part of the job, she said, is drivers who don’t obey the traffic signs or her signals while she’s directing traffic.

“They don’t pay attention,” Graves said. “They do what they want to do. They’ll turn (at an intersection) anyway, instead of waiting for the crossing guard to give them permission to go, to try to keep from hurting themselves and their children.

“If they (the children) get hurt, then my heart’s going to hurt. I’m there to protect them.”

For the most part, she said, the children follow her lead crossing streets, but she recalled an incident where one youngster decided to follow his own compass.

“I’ve got all the traffic stopped and the children were coming across the street, and I’ve got a new child,” she said, adding the boy crossed at a different corner instead of crossing with the other children.

She told the boy, “I guess I’m going to have to invent another crosswalk for you, because you’re not standing with me, and I’m supposed to be here to protect you. Baby, if something happened to you, I’m going to be hurt. Please, please, just follow the line.

“I’ve never had a child do that before,” Graves said. “There wasn’t a crosswalk there, and I was afraid for him. He never said anything. He just smiled. I’m talking to him and he’s smiling. We both smiled.”

Working with the children, she said, “makes my day and I make their day, because I treat them like my children.”

Graves said she had to attend a class to learn the hand signals and traffic rules before she was assigned a location.

“They show you films and the officers show you how to direct traffic, how to watch the traffic and how to stop traffic, and to be alert at all times,” she said. “If there’s a fire or an ambulance, I know how to stop all the traffic instantly, and let the ambulance or fire truck or police car get by safely.”

When school ends, Graves works at the Vicksburg city pool, and sees a lot of the children she helped during school.

“I see them, even the little ones,” she said, adding they are surprised to see her behind the counter.

“Just this summer, I had one boy look at me and said, ‘You’re that crossing guard. You be all in it,’” she said. “I asked him, “Baby, what do mean be all in it?’ and he started imitating how I do it (her hand signals).

“I love my job. I love helping people.”