Heroes

Madison Vaughan has had the same mailman for 22 years, which is not uncommon. Being a mail carrier is a great, steady, and even lucrative government career — so people tend to stick around for a long while, often keeping the same route for years or even decades. Madison initially got to know her mailman, Tim, when she was a kid living with her parents. When she moved out, she didn't go far, moving into an apartment down the road that was still on Tim's route.

So when it came time for Vaughan to finally move away for good, she felt it would only be right to say goodbye to the man who had been there throughout so many big moments in her life. As a kind, simple gesture, she gave him a card and a little money for the holidays, just as a Thank You for all his years of friendly service. What she never expected was to get the response that she did.

Vaughan recently shared a video on TikTok of her opening the lengthy and heartfelt card that her mailman, Tim, left her in return.

She struggles to hold back her emotion as she shows off the card, which was left mysteriously in her mailbox with just her name on the front.

"He wrote such a thoughtful thing," she says, opening the card and holding in the tears. Inside, there's a letter several paragraphs long, and in beautiful penmanship, too!

"Good luck on your move," Madison reads from Tim's card. "I will be retiring at the end of the year anyway. ... It has been a pleasure being your mailman."

She then attempts to put into words why the gesture means so much to her. "He has watched me grow up, and I've watched him grow up, too. ... This ruined me, I'm going to keep it forever."

Watch the whole beautiful moment here.

The next thing Vaughan didn't expect was the overwhelming response to her video.

Though she only has a few hundred followers on TikTok, Vaughan's video quickly launched itself into the viral stratosphere.To date, it has over half a million views. In the comments, there was an outpouring of love from people who felt similarly about their own mail carriers, people who had been present in their lives for decades.

Here are some of the best comments and sentiments:

My childhood mailman came to my mom’s funeral and I lost it

my dad was a mailman and he used to come home and tell us about every kind person and every dog, cat etc. you'd have made his day

My mailman did something similar and wrote “from Mickey Mouse birthday cards to college acceptance letters, it’s been a pleasure to deliver them all” I cried

Grew up poor with few opportunities. Had the same mailman for 18 years. He came in my house while I opened mail from my dream college and celebrated my acceptance! Community = everything

My dad was a mailman for 20 plus years on the same route. When he died people from his route and the convenience store where he got his coffee everyday came to the funeral! Not all heroes wear capes.

My husband is a mailman and he hand writes personal thank you cards for everyone who gives him treats/cards etc for the holiday. He also gives all the doggies on his route boxes of biscuits for Xmas

Vaughan's story shines a spotlight on the importance of so-called 'background characters' in our lives.

Photo by Joel Moysuh on Unsplash

Vaughan admits that she and Tim weren't great friends, necessarily, but that didn't make his everyday presence in her life any less meaningful. I think that's an idea we can all relate to.

If you stay in one place long enough, you start to see the same faces. I see a few of the same joggers every morning, the same cashiers at the grocery store, the same woman working the drive-through at McDonalds, the same guy walking his dog, the same dozen or so people who go to the same at the same time as me. Sometimes you chat with these folks and maybe even get to know them a little bit, sometimes there's just a silent acknowledgment, and sometimes maybe nothing at all. But regardless of how close, or not, you are, there can still be a sense of loss when it's time to say goodbye.

It also shines a light on the importance of mail carriers and the US postal service. In recent years there's been a push to get rid of the USPS and privatize the whole thing. But that idea ignores the role mail carriers play in communities, the lifesaving and important work of delivering mail every day on time, and the role the post office plays in a fair democracy. It also ignores mail carriers like Tim, who would lose their jobs and their routes, and even more importantly, all the little connections they make along the way.