An elderly woman is alive thanks to the keen observation of a Colorado postal worker who noticed something was amiss.
Seana Green has been a mail carrier in Durango, Colorado for the past 15 years, first as a substitute, then consistently taking over her current route around five years ago.
Since she began regularly walking from house to house in the same neighborhood, Green has taken to chatting with residents as she hand delivers their mail.
That’s why two weeks ago, Green noticed something off about the routine of elderly Marilyn Schmidt.
“She’s out there pretty much at least like three or four times a week, kind of on an every other day thing,” the mail carrier told local news outlet KOAT.
Green noticed that Schmidt, who was still 89 at the time, had not collected her letters for some time, and it was starting to overflow in her mailbox.
“I didn’t see her on Thursday and I didn’t hear on Friday. And when I showed up on Saturday and she wasn’t on the porch and the mail was just hanging out of her box,” she detailed.
Green couldn’t ignore the instincts telling her that something wasn’t right, and decided it was time to make contact.
“I hollered through the screen and I said, ‘Mrs. Schmidt?’ And, ‘Mrs. Schmidt, are you in there or are you OK?'” the USPS worker recalled.
Schmidt’s response was soft and sad. “I heard her very weak voice, like, Oh, and I almost sounded like a kitten meowing,” Green explained. “It broke my heart.”
At that point she knew that it was time to take action, and entered the house to find the elderly woman lying on the kitchen floor.
Green called 911, and Schmidt was transported to a local medical center, where she still remains recovering more than a week later.
“The doctor said, you know, if we hadn’t found her when we did, it would have been probably the worst-case scenario,” she explained about the seriousness of the situation.
Since being hospitalized, Schmidt has turned 90, and Green was there to celebrate.
“I am just so excited that it brought us together and that she and I got to know each other, that I could be there because now she gets to celebrate her 90th birthday,” the mail carrier stated.
Green isn’t the only heroic USPS employee, a Michigan postal worker was commended with the Postmaster General Hero Award in June, for also assisting an elderly resident.
Over the winter, Wilma Daley saw a resident on her Grand Rapids, Michigan delivery route lying on his driveway in the middle of a snow storm.
The man, who is a retired police officer, slipped while taking out the trash and had been on the ground with a broken arm and partially paralyzed for 30 minutes, before Daley pulled over.
Upon reaching the former police officer, Daley couldn’t lift him by herself, but flagged down a passing driver. Together they got him inside his warm home and facilitated treatment a local hospital for his injuries.
