Mail man saves a life on route

GUILFORD, Conn. (WTNH) - It has been a rough winter for everyone including those who trudge through ice and snow to deliver our mail.

One letter carrier, went the extra mile on his route, and an elderly woman is alive because of him.

Neither rain, nor sleet nor all the snow and ice can keep 55 year old Paul Guerrette from delivering the mail. He's been with the U.S. Postal Service for 21 years. The last six as a letter carrier in Guilford. Last month, Guerrette did something he's never done before on his route. he saved a woman's life.

"I opened up the mailbox, and she had not picked up her mail all week. I was a little concerned," says Guerrette.

He also saw the meals on wheels bag overflowing on the doorstep. He called his manager, then called police and waited. When officers got there, they found the 88 year old woman on the floor. She was hurt and very dehydrated. She'd been on the ground for three days.

"Initially I was hoping everything would be all right, and I was thankful she was still alive," says Guerrette.

His bosses and colleagues and members of the Guilford Police Department honored him for doing the right thing.

"He could've just kept on his rounds and not called us. It would have had a tragic result," says Sargent Robert Norman. "Every carrier here knows their people, who's on the route, who's disabled, who is not home all of a sudden, keep an eye on everything. They are the eyes and ears."

Guerrette says, don't call him a hero.

"Those are police and firefighters, they put their lives on the line," says Guerrette.

The 88 year old woman spent a few days in the hospital and is now recovering in a nursing home. Guerrette hopes to meet her again.