Shovel a path to your mailbox
Sharon Patterson spends a couple of hours each day sorting through the stacks of mail she delivers, every parcel placed in order for her route.
She distributes mail to 575 postal patrons at residential houses, apartment buildings and businesses in Crown Point. Her work day begins at 7:30 a.m., first sorting the mail and then hitting the streets, on foot and in a postal vehicle, for another seven to eight hours.
“Sometimes I get help, but we are short-handed,” Patterson told me after a recent workday.
She trudges through mounds of snow that haven’t melted an inch lately, and through temps that are expected to plunge to near zero this weekend in our region. For Patterson and her postal carrier colleagues, the wind chill factor isn’t a weather forecast graphic, it’s an occupational hazard.
She layers up as best she can underneath her blue United
States Postal Service coat and pants, both adorned with the familiar red and white stripes. A floppy hood drapes over her winter cap, just above a facial mask needed for the pandemic. Her gloves are thick enough for warmth but thin enough to handle every shape and size of mail parcels. Boots that could navigate Antarctica round out her uniform. “And lots of coffee,” she joked. Patterson navigates her way from house to house, and building to building, like a ninja in the
night. She blends in to her surroundings like just another envelope in her mailbag. She goes mostly unnoticed by residents and motorists who view her as part of the outdoor scenery.
“I thought working through the pandemic last year couldn’t get any worse,” said Patterson, who lives in Lowell. “It can. Just add record amounts of cold weather and snow.”
Patterson has been delivering mail for 25 years. A quarter century of unwanted junk mail, unwelcoming dogs, unsafe driveways and un-shoveled sidewalks. When a postal patron goes out of their way to make her job the slightest bit easier, Patterson notices.
On Wednesday, it literally stopped her in her tracks. One of her patrons shoveled a path for her across their front lawn. It looks like the parted Red Sea over a pathway of greenish grass. Patterson was so appreciative she took a photograph of the gesture.
“I probably have at least a dozen patrons who do this,” she said. “Unfortunately, I have several dozen who don’t bother with their sidewalks and steps.”
She doesn’t expect homeowners to shovel a pathway to their mailbox. But when they do, it never goes unnoticed. It offers a brief reprieve from plodding through snow that can feel like walking through sand. Or shuffling over icy pavements that can turn a casual walk into a clown skit.
Postal carriers also must navigate over plowed snow and slush that pile up along curbs in front of roadside mailboxes. The next time you retrieve your mail, try doing it from your car and you’ll get an idea how difficult it may be to drive close enough to do so.
“Our vehicles are rearwheel drive and get stuck easily,” Patterson said.
She’s not complaining. She’s explaining, on behalf of postal carriers who must deal with these harsh winter weather conditions.
“Most of my patrons are awesome,” she told me.
She receives kind words from people on her route. Occasionally she gets a hot cup of coffee or a sweet treat. If she notices someone shoveling near their mailbox or making a pathway of any kind, Patterson doesn’t hesitate to give thanks or show gratefulness.
“I usually write thankyou notes for the ones who shovel across their lawns,” she said, admitting she needs to write more of these notes this winter.
For those patrons who don’t make such an effort, Patterson has been known to remind them, politely, that she simply doesn’t want to get hurt while delivering their mail. It’s more about her safety than convenience. Patterson is a divorced mother of four adult children, three sons and a daughter.
“I was fortunate to have my salary from the post office,” she said.
Like their mother, they too have a strong work ethic with their jobs as a bricklayer, a car dealership service manager, an accountant and a systems engineer. “I’m proud of them,” said Patterson, who has four grandchildren.
Five years ago this week, she contacted me about a postal carrier colleague, Mark Enzwiler. On his route, an elderly woman slipped and fell in the snow while tossing a bag of garbage into the trash can behind her home. A chronic back ailment kept her down.
The woman fell behind a large snow drift, hiding her from the hurried motorists along the nearby road. She yelled for help. She waved for help. She prayed to God for help. Two out of three pleas didn’t work.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” the woman told me.
And then along came Enzwiler. He helped her up and back into her home.
“In addition to doing his job under difficult conditions, perhaps Mark saved the woman’s life,” Patterson said.
Perhaps he did.
On this Valentine’s Day weekend, perhaps we can show some love to the postal carriers who deliver all those greeting cards and love letters. Patterson and her co-workers aren’t asking for much. Shovel any kind of path on your property or near your mailbox on the street. Maybe sprinkle some salt on icy patches on your porch. It’s a gesture that would take only a few minutes.
“We thank you in advance for making our jobs safer,” Patterson said.