FRONTENAC, Mo. — For four decades, Mike Carranza showed up. Rain or shine, day after day, he drove the same streets of Frontenac Estates, and somewhere along the way, he stopped being just the mail carrier and started being a neighbor.
He knew the names. He knew the faces. He knew the dogs.
“If he sees our dogs outside, he’ll stop the truck, get out of the truck and throw (a treat) to each of the dogs,” said resident Sarah Oberman. “He knows which dog will grab the other one. So he’s learned the trick to distract one and throw it to the other. So they both get their treats.”
That kind of attention, repeated every single day, didn’t go unnoticed.
“First of all, he greets you well. Like you are his best friend,” said resident Tricia Phillipe. “He’s just so accommodating … he’s been wonderful to us.”
When the end finally came, Carranza announced it the same way he did everything else: quietly and with care. He dropped a handwritten letter into every mailbox on his route.
“I am writing this to inform you all that I’m retiring at the end of this month…”
It was a simple goodbye from a man who never made a big deal out of doing the little things right.
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