Kindness at the post office

Dear Readers:

This is a new column that will run on Mondays. If you find the news of the world to be depressing these days (I do!), this might help your mood. Peggie Weeks is a local writer, but in a twist for the column business, she won't always be the writer. She has a lot of writer friends who are lining up to join her in posting pieces about kindness in this too-often dreary media world. We hope they start your week on a cheerful note.

--Mike Phillips

Growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I had a wonderful childhood. My dad died when I was four, which was hard for my mom. But her three unmarried sisters, who lived together, stepped up and became our second and third and fourth moms. My godmother, Helen, was one of those sisters.

Aunt Helen had what I thought was the coolest job! She ran the post office at the main Carnegie Museum and Library in Oakland, just outside of downtown Pittsburgh. We would often visit her and get to play with the adding machine and pick out commemorative stamps that we wanted. She was a great postmistress and befriended many of the people who came in to mail letters and packages and to buy stamps. Many of those customers were students and professors from the nearby universities - Carnegie Tech and Pitt. I sure do miss those days of visiting her and meeting some of her regular customers.  

I love going to the post office in downtown Fernandina Beach. It's a magnificent building with a rich history. According to Wikipedia, "The U.S. Post Office, Custom House and Courthouse is an historic building of the US government ... It was constructed in the locally popular Renaissance Revival architecture style and was completed in 1912 under the supervision of James Knox Taylor, Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department ... It is three stories, comprising 18,800 square feet."

While I marvel at the architecture, that is not the main reason I love visiting the post office. I go there for a dose of kindness. And that kindness comes from Jonathan, the postmaster. He always has a smile for me, and he seems to always remember me, although I do not go there every week. He speaks with kindness, he acts with kindness, and I am sure, although I do not know him well, that his very character is built on kindness and compassion. He always makes my day.

So thank you, Jonathan, for shining your light for me and for all of the customers who walk through the post office door. Your kindness matters. And you bring back fond memories of times with my Aunt Helen at her post office.

~~~

Peggie Weeks is a 14-year resident of Fernandina Beach and a member of the non-profit organization Compassionate Fernandina. The organization's vision is "a community in which we treat each other and Earth with kindness, dignity, and respect," and the mission is "to widen the circle of compassion through practical, intentional actions." The city of Fernandina Beach issued a proclamation in 2017 and endorsed the principles of Compassionate Fernandina, joining forces with the organization "to promote compassionate actions throughout the city and to make compassion a clear and dynamic force in our world."

Peggie invites others in the community to share their stories of kindness and compassion. If you have a story you'd like to share here in the Fernandina Observer — about a neighbor or friend or business that showed you kindness — please contact her at pegweeks@gmail.com

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." ~William Penn