Jacqueline Goff, a contract delivery service carrier in Belfry, KY, was making deliveries in January when she learned that an older customer had been without heat and electricity for over four days.
The woman, who had no cellphone, had been unable to call anyone, so Goff offered to contact the electric company for her.
Goff enlisted the help of local Postmaster Kathy Howard, who alerted the utility.
It was determined there was a problem with the customer’s fuse box, which the company couldn’t address, so Goff called the woman’s out-of-town family members, who promised to travel to Belfry the next day to assist.
Howard asked a neighbor to keep an eye on the woman until her family arrived, and Goff checked on her subsequently as well.
“Our carriers are the only people some of our customers see on any given day,” Howard said. “Taking a moment to check on them when we haven’t seen them or heard from them in a few days may just be the difference between life and death for them.”