Longtime Windsor mail carrier honored for helping injured woman

A scene on the sidewalk alarmed postal carrier Chey Kahaulelio-Virelas as she drove her route in Windsor on April 23.

Chey, a graduate of Windsor High, spotted an elderly couple not far from their home. The man seemed to attempt to comfort and assist his wife, who sat slumped forward in a wheelchair.

Chey turned her postal rig around, parked and hastened to the two. She saw bloody wounds on the woman's head.

The man told Chey and a neighbor who'd also rushed over that his wife had fallen and struck her head on the sidewalk.

It occurred to Chey that she had moments before delivered a package to patron Joshua Kucker. She knows Kucker is a hospital emergency-room physician.

Chey took off for his house, found his wife and asked her to tell Dr. Kucker he was needed at once.

The doc rushed to the injured woman and gave her aid. Though Kucker recommended calling 911, the woman's husband insisted on driving her to a hospital.

Her recovery was sweet news to Chey, a nearly 20-year rural carrier in Windsor who cares about the people on the route.

“We're more than just carriers,” she said. “We're counselors and the eyes and ears of the communities we serve.”

Chey's co-workers cheered her Tuesday at the Windsor post office as she was presented a personal letter of thanks and recognition from Megan Brennan, an ex-Pennsylvania postal carrier who's now postmaster general of the United States.