The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
MORE THAN MAIL Norwalk mail carrier delivers safety in the form of homemade masks for her customers
USPS mail carrier Libby Carroll in Norwalk on Tuesday. Carroll made protective face masks with HEPA filter inserts for her customers on her route in Norwalk.
Carroll on her Norwalk route Tuesday. Below left is one of her masks, and at right, a HEPA filter insert.
Libby Carroll has given a great deal of her time to helping others. She also loves to sew. So when the coronavirus began spreading across the region, Carroll decided to combine those two parts of her life into something even greater.
A Norwalk mail carrier, Carroll has been creating protective face masks for the people along her route. It’s a special touch during a time when people are isolated, and a little kindness goes a long way.
“Libby is an amazing soul who’s out on the front line, risking her life and herself to not only deliver our mail, but deliver masks,” said Erika Goodwin, whose home is on Carroll’s route. “I was so surprised that she cared so much to leave me one of the masks in my mailbox.”
What began as a few masks for family, eventually grew to a bigger community.
“I sew a little and I started making them mostly for myself and family,” Carroll said. “I gave one to Erika and then I had a few customers ask me about them. Usually, they’d ask me where I got my mask and I told them that I made it, so I started making some for a few customers. They love them and they’ve been very grateful.”
It’s an unnerving time for many, perhaps even more so for Carroll, who has been battling Lupus while continuing to work a job that’s considered
essential and puts her at a high risk of contracting COVID-19.
“It’s scary. I really have to be careful,” Carroll said.
In addition to being out and about constantly, Carroll, who volunteers with the Lupus Foundation, said she was worried about the availability of her prescriptions, which include an immunosuppressant and Plaquenil, which some doctors have used for COVID.
“My doctor has said as long as I’m careful, I don’t talk to people for more than 15 minutes, and keep an eye on how I’m feeling, I should be OK,” Carroll said.
Goodwin, who also has Lupus, said Carroll wanted to make sure she had a mask, but was also sewing them for everybody that she could. Carroll sews the masks on her days off, using her own personal time to create and protect.
Goodwin met Carroll a year ago when she moved to her Norwalk neighborhood and called the mail carrier and friend “a ray of sunshine.”
“Ever since I’ve known her, she’s been a very humble and kind person who would not
want to have a ‘shout-out’ done for her, but she deserves it,” Goodwin said. “She’s out there during the pandemic and she’s not just delivering mail, she’s delivering masks. I’m very grateful to have someone like that in our neighborhood.
“No matter what’s going on with my day, and I know she’s got a lot going on with her life, she’s just such a kind person,” Goodwin added. “She’s always been that way, not just during this time.”
For Carroll, giving her time and efforts to the community and a good cause is important.
“I’m a big believer in giving back,” Carroll said. “I volunteer with the Lupus Foundation year-round, and my fiance was in a car accident a few years ago, so I had originally planned on sending (the masks) to the hospitals he was in — St. Mary’s in Waterbury and Gaylord Hospital (in Wallingford) — but there’s just not enough hours.
“But I’m still sewing and doing what I can.”