On Oct. 19, 2018, on a cool autumn day at around 11 a.m., a postal worker delivering mail in Chesaning, Michigan, saw Alison Gibson’s mailbox, which was overflowing with mail.
Why hadn’t Gibson collected her mail these few days as she normally does?
The postal worker had a hunch something was amiss, and it turned out he was correct.
Five days earlier, on Oct. 15, Gibson had trouble lifting herself out of the bathtub. To make matters worse, the handrail was beyond her reach.
Gibson, who lives alone, struggled in vain to remove herself from the bathtub.
“When I get down there, I couldn’t get back out,” Gibson said.
She couldn’t get help as her cellphone wasn’t with her—she had left it in another room.
Gibson was rushed to the hospital. And four days later, she was back home.
She was grateful to be alive after the dramatic ordeal. To prevent such trauma from occurring again, she plans to install a walk-in tub.
“I don’t want to do it again, that’s for sure,” she said.
If not for the postal worker and the neighbors, the consequences could’ve been unimaginable. For that, Gibson is forever grateful for their astuteness.