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At Wednesday’s Ottawa Senators home game, high up in section 324, two men in jerseys sat cheering, unusually bonded — by sport, by the everyday — on the road of life.

One was Tim Wilkinson, 53, an OC Transpo operator, the youngest of seven who grew up in a military family in Pembroke, bred to public service.

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The other was Serge Pommainville, 37, who lives alone with cerebral palsy and is a frequent passenger on Wilkinson’s No. 1 route down Bank Street.

This is how they met. This is how they roll. On a bus, going places together.

Wilkinson, a driver for 15 years, says he’s been picking up Serge on and off for 10 years. Because of his disability, Serge can be loud, difficult to understand and sometimes a little unruly. So Wilkinson tries to calm him, keep an eye out for his safety and well-being.

“Sit near me? He usually stands right off my right shoulder,” says the driver, himself a father of three. He could see Serge was just putting in time some days, sometimes riding the bus just to talk, even for a block or two, sometimes just wandering.