Postal carrier goes above, beyond duty
Posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/hl/News/19768/
They don’t make postal carriers like Jerral Shelley anymore.
That is how Sharon Davis, supervisor at U. S. Postal Service in Siloam Springs, described Shelley on Thursday in a surprise assembly to honor him for going above and beyond his duty as a postal carrier.
Shelley, a USPS carrier since 1981, was delivering the mail on his rural route recently when he realized something was wrong. Peggy Ruddle, a woman on his route, had two days of mail piled up in her box. Shelley noticed her car was parked at the house.
“ I’ve carried her route for years, ” he said. Shelley knew the woman had health problems — concerned for Ruddle, he decided to contact Davis.
“ I told Sharon here that something wasn’t right, ” he said.
Davis contacted local authorities, who responded to the house on East Dawn Hill Road. Shelley stayed on the scene while emergency service personnel busted down the door.
Inside they found Ruddle, who had fallen down three days earlier and was unable to get up, Shelley said. Potentially, the woman could have been lying there for a week, Davis said.
“ The paramedics said if it had been any later that Jerral got there, she would have gone into a diabetic coma, ” Davis said.
“ I was sorry I didn’t catch it a day sooner, ” Shelley said.
Davis said the simple act of taking the time to notice such details is rare these days.
Mail carriers are paid for an eight-hour workday, whether it takes them six or 12 hours, she said. Most people in that situation want to finish work as quickly as possible and get home. But not Shelley, Davis said.
Davis described Shelley as among those carriers who don’t merely carry the mail, but who genuinely care for the people along the way.
Ruddle moved out of state to be with family since her October accident.
Shelley, whose route is 88 miles, has carried a rural route in Siloam Springs longer than anyone else at the USPS.