Linda Bowman took an awful fall in her yard and broke her shoulder. She was home alone and in trouble.
But God smiled on her that day, as Clarkesville postal worker Heather Bardinelli was coming up the driveway at that time.
“I saw her walking to her garden, and I turned to get the packages. When I looked back, I saw her legs up in the air,” Bardinelli said of the incident on Oct. 7 during her regular mail route.
Bowman had no family members around to help her, but Bardinelli rushed to her aid.
“She was a godsend,” Bowman said. “I couldn’t have asked for anybody better. She took control. … She may have saved my life.”
Bardinelli helped Bowman stay calm and called her daughter, Dana Godfrey, keeping her on the phone until an ambulance could arrive in the northern area of Habersham County.
“She went above and beyond,” Godfrey said. “She didn’t have to do that, and she kept us both calm and said my mom was going to be OK.”
Bowman said Bardinelli frequently brings packages all the way to her porch or garage so that she can easily access them. Bowman said she cannot walk all the way to her mailbox.
“I was in extreme pain, but I know enough to know she was helping me get where I needed to go,” Bowman said. “I do believe God sent her. There is no telling how long I would have been there if it had not been that time of day.”
Bardinelli stayed with Bowman until family members arrived and they loaded her into an ambulance.
“I couldn’t just leave her there,” Bardinelli said. “Thank God they had packages that day and I was there, but it wasn’t anything heroic. I just tried to be there for her.”