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BURLINGTON (MCT) — Valerie Hughes touched a lot of people.

From the radiology students she taught at Moses Cone Health System in Greensboro to the patients she worked with as a radiological technologist at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, Hughes made a lasting impression.

Her parents, Carl and Susan Hughes, of Burlington, always knew their daughter was special. They watched her grow from a shy little girl to a woman who could easily express herself. She was talented and accomplished, graduating both Alamance Christian School and Greensboro College with a 4.0 grade point average.

Valerie Hughes was a budding teacher early on. She loved animals, especially cats. She had a "thing for giraffes" and dreamed of one day having an alpaca farm. She wanted to help people and make a difference.

Carl and Susan Hughes recently found out how much their daughter reached out to others. The information, though comforting, came on one of the worst days of their lives.

Valerie Hughes' friends and coworkers lined up inside Rich & Thompson Funeral Home in Graham on Oct. 29 and for two hours straight one person after another shared memories with Hughes' parents.

Two days before, at about 4 p.m. on Oct. 27, Valerie Hughes was heading home to Burlington after a day of work at UNC Hospitals. She followed her usual routine, which meant riding a Chapel Hill Transit bus to a lot where her car was parked and then driving 30 miles to Alamance County.

But on that day Hughes never made it to the bus stop. She was struck by bus driver James Willie Orr, 65, while he was making a left turn onto Columbia Street from Mason Farm Road. Hughes was in a marked crosswalk, where pedestrians have the right of way.

Orr was eventually charged with misdemeanor death by a motor vehicle and was fired from his job.

There were 20 medical interns on the bus at the time. They all jumped off to help Hughes, said Tysha Dill, Valerie Hughes' partner. Susan Hughes had just walked in the door at about 4:45 p.m. that day when she received a phone call from the hospital.

Hughes died later that day. She was 33.

"Nightmare" is the only way her father can describe it. "We are still in shock," Carl Hughes says two weeks after his daughter's death.

Carl Hughes can share a few details. He flips through a 7-inch thick stack of sympathy cards, reading the ones that touch deep.

Candice Demaegd, Valerie's former student in Moses Cone's radiology program, wrote about what Hughes meant to her.

"She was a beautiful example of what it means to be a healthcare provider," Demaegd wrote. "She inspired me to be a better person in all of my endeavors. She demonstrated compassion, kindness, caring, generosity, love and concern not only for her students but for her patients as well."

Dill and Valerie met 12 years ago. They both worked at Moses Cone. Hughes was in the radiology department and Dill in the lab.

"She touched a lot of people," Dill says. "She was able to bring out and make people comfortable. She had big plans."

Eve Pedersen, Valerie Hughes' supervisor at UNC Hospitals, says she was what every boss wants an employee to be: "She was reliable. You could always count on her for anything you needed her to do."

Her co-workers were so distraught to learn she was hit by a bus that they gathered in the hospital after work the night she died. Last week, they all wore black ribbons in memory of Hughes for National Radiologic Technology week, and they are in the process of having two plaques made in her honor. One will hang at UNC Hospitals and the other in the Ambulatory Care Center where she worked.

Every technologist is assigned an X-ray marker number so doctors can identify who did the test. Hughes' number will be retired.