BATON ROUGE – Since he was eight years old, one local man always knew he'd be a train engineer. On Friday, he was one of the engineers who delivered the late President George H.W. Bush to College Station, Texas, where Bush will be buried on the grounds of his presidential library.

His mother Pamela Braud, who still lives in Baton Rouge , couldn’t be more proud.

“Oh, I was elated, I was really elated. I'm proud of him,” she said. “I bought him his first train set when he was eight years old, and he just pursued his dream.”

Aaron has worked for Union Pacific for the last 18 years and is now based in Houston. He said participating in Bush’s funeral ceremony was an honor.

“It was a wonderful experience. There were actually two trains involved, and I was on the first train,” he said.

Hundreds of people lined the 70-mile route to pay final respects to Bush.

“It showed America coming together, everyone coming together to honor and remember number 41,” said Aaron.

Braud knew months ago that he had been selected, but he had to keep it a secret. His mom was the first to know.

“It was a good feeling,” she said.

Witnessing her son’s hard work pay off, she says there’s one lesson to take away from this.

“You can be anything you want to be if you put your mind to it, never give up,” she said.

Aaron, who snapped a picture in front of Engine 4141, agreed.

“It started as a childhood passion and finally when I got the job, I was like ‘wow, this is really happening.”