OLEAN — As mail carrier Kaitlynn Roberson was delivering a grocery store mailer to an East Olean residence on May 15, she heard a noise inside the home.
“At first I thought it was a cat,” she said. “I started to turn around and then I heard a faint ‘help.’ I knew then it was definitely a person.”
Roberson knew the resident is an older woman who lives alone. Roberson knocked on the door and, still hearing the faint cries from the house, she entered.
She found Anne Walsh had fallen down the stairs, injuring her legs and unable to move. Roberson called 911 and stayed with Walsh until Olean city firefighters and police responded. Roberson also called Walsh’s sister, Jean Klimczyk, to let her know what had happened.
Walsh, 67, was taken to Erie County Medical Center, where she had surgery on Monday and faces a long recovery. Her sister said that Walsh did not have her phone with her when she fell at about 8:30 a.m. and, had Roberson not found her after 1 p.m., she could have died due to low blood glucose.
“Kaitlyn is a hero, she really is,” Klimczyk said Thursday.
