Key figure

Woodridge, IL, Letter Carrier Kimberly Gillis was recently making deliveries when she grew concerned about a 95-year-old customer whose mail and newspapers were piling up.

Gillis alerted neighbors, one of whom had a key to the woman’s home, and they soon found her stranded on the floor of her bedroom, where she’d fallen several days earlier.

The customer was taken to a rehabilitation facility to recover from the incident.

“From the heart, I just knew something was wrong. I knew I had to let someone know that something was wrong,” Gillis later told WLS-TV, Chicago’s ABC affiliate. “I’m glad I was there to say something and I noticed.”

“We’re grateful to have her,” said neighbor Jean Esler. “I told her she can never leave us.”


Employees featured in “Heroes’ Corner” also receive letters of commendation through the Postmaster General Heroes’ Program. The nomination form is available on Blue.