Making an Unexpected Friend at the Post Office
It’s never too late in life to foster new relationships and learn new lessons
I stood in line to mail a few packages at my local post office. In front of me, carrying on a flustered conversation with the postal worker at the counter, was an elderly gentleman, clearly of a different era: gray wool coat, tweed fedora, walking cane hooked around one of his wrists.
As I grew somewhat impatient, I overheard the postal worker say to the man, “I’m sorry, sir, but this address is incorrect. I cannot send this for you. You’ll need to step away from the window and come back when you have the correct address.” The old man’s shoulders sunk, and he retreated in bewildered disappointment.
I stepped toward the counter, but then I thought twice: Should I do something for this man? I turned back and I decided to ask, “Hi, can I help you?”
A visible sense of relief washed over his small frame. “I have the wrong address,” he said.
“Who are you sending it to?” I asked.
“My niece in Connecticut,” he said. “She is a piano teacher.” He handed me the package with its incorrect address written on the label. I Googled his niece’s full name, along with her city, state, and the words “piano teacher,” and a photo came up on my Instagram.
“Is this her?” I showed him the photo.
“Why, yes! It is! How did you do that?” he asked in total amazement as if I had just completed an impossible magic trick.
I quickly private-messaged her, explaining the situation. As we waited for her reply, I turned to my new friend and asked him his name. “Fred,” he replied.
“Perhaps your niece is teaching a piano lesson,” I offered, after several minutes had passed and we hadn’t received a response. “Do you have anyone else that you can call and ask?”
“Oh, yes,” he said. “My brother! Her dad.”
So we called his brother and I introduced myself, and it turned out that the street address that Fred had provided was off by just one number. I made the correction on his package, and we returned to the window.
“Is this a book that you’re mailing?” I asked Fred.
“Yes.”
“Then be sure to ask for the media book rate, if it’s not a rush for her to receive it.” Again, Fred thought I was a genius. Only $4.00! Fred mailed his package, then waited as I mailed mine afterward.
I asked who was picking him up — surely, he was too old to drive— and he said confidently, “My car is out front!” I hooked my arm into his elbow and escorted him out.
“Fred, may I ask how old you are?”
“I’m 93,” he answered with pride and a twinkle in his eyes.
He asked me to put my phone number and address into his phone, which I did. I asked him how he still had a license and if he had to bribe the DMV. He chuckled.
“Nope. I passed on my own!”
One week later, an envelope arrived in my mailbox with familiar handwriting. It was a card from Fred, with the kindest, most thoughtful message thanking me for my help at the post office.
Fred went on to write about himself and his family: in the letter, I learned that he was a retired architect, father of three grown daughters, and grandfather to three grandchildren. He had picked up painting as a hobby in retirement.
I replied by mailing him my family holiday card and a note about my kids, husband, and interests. A week later I received another card from him, this time with an image of the local post office on the front that Fred had actually drawn and printed. And since then, our epistolary friendship has continued.
I love that Fred has become my new pen pal. We have written back and forth several times, updating each other on the goings-on in our lives. Our budding friendship has shown me that it’s never too late in life to foster new relationships and learn new lessons.
Thus, don’t be shy. Step up — be an upstander. Say hello to a neighbor on the street, your Uber driver, the coffee barista, or someone next to you in line at the grocery store. You never know who you may meet along the way, what stories they may share, and what wisdom you may glean from someone you might have otherwise ignored.
Indeed, you never know who you may meet while waiting in line at the post office —maybe it’ll be a nonagenarian treasure like Fred.
Cynthia Clumeck Muchnick is the author of several educational books for students and parents including The Parent Compass: Navigating Your Teen’s Wellness and Academic Journey in Today’s Competitive World (Familius/Workman, 2020). She has worked in college admissions, as an educational consultant, and as a high school teacher. Cindy speaks professionally to parents, students, teachers, and businesses on topics such as study skills, the adolescent journey, college admission, and the parent compass movement. Her essays have appeared in: Moms Don’t Have Time To Write, Your Teen Magazine, College Confidential, Raising Teens Today, The Los Angeles Times, and The Mom Experience, among others. Cindy is thrilled to have finally written her own children’s book, too, that publishes in 2023. She resides in Menlo Park, California, with her two teens, husband, and dog, Sprinkle. Her two grown kids live on the East Coast. www.cynthiamuchnick.com IG: @parentcompass LinkedIn
