Carla Nelson had just gotten home from buying groceries. Thompson-Newsome was across the street and called out to her, asking how Nelson was healing from a fall the previous year. Nelson replied that she was recuperating well.
“Then she watched me fall down the front steps,” Nelson said.
Nelson rolled down her concrete stairs, later learning that she had dislocated a shoulder and tore her rotator cuff.
“My first instinct was just to run and make sure she was OK,” said Thompson-Newsome, whom Nelson nominated as a Dayton Daily News Community Gem for her efforts that day.
Thompson-Newsome, 33, helped Nelson sit up and called an ambulance. She carried her groceries into the house, locked the door and retrieved Nelson’s purse. She stayed until the squad arrived and then checked in on her a few days later.
Her aid that day is just one example of how Thompson-Newsome goes “above and beyond” on her route, Nelson said.
Many of Nelson’s neighbors know the carrier by name – and she also totes pet treats, so many of their cats and dogs know and wait for her, too. Thompson-Newsome is kind and thoughtful, often waving and saying hello, the 68-year-old Nelson said.
“She’s always smiling and so happy and positive,” Nelson said. “She never looks like she’s tired.”
For Thompson-Newsome, the joy goes both ways. She likes to uplift those she is delivering to, even for just a moment. They do the same for her.
“It’s amazing how they brighten up my day,” said the Beavercreek resident, who has been a postal carrier for 12 years.
The people on her current six-hour route are “like an extended family,” she said. They are not only a part of each other’s day, but each other’s lives. The job also has shown her the importance of courtesy and has taught her that a person can find common ground with anyone.
Nelson, who has recovered from a reverse shoulder replacement last fall and has undergone months of physical therapy, said Thompson-Newsome is an example of someone who takes pride in her job.
“She’s just a great mail carrier, and she makes a point to get to know her customers,” Nelson said.
Mail carriers can have a negative reputation, or they can be taken for granted, Nelson said. Federal workers aren’t lazy, she said, but are dedicated and hardworking. Nelson herself has been a federal worker for 41 years, currently working as a budget analyst at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
She wants Thompson-Newsome to know that she is appreciated, not only for her assistance and quick-thinking last summer, but also for her work as a mail carrier.
“They’re a branch we need to appreciate,” Nelson said. “They affect our everyday life.”
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