Meet the singing FedEx driver and native islander delivering joy across Hilton Head
If Eddie Days’ FedEx truck could talk, it would belt out Gullah Geechee hymns.
Five days a week, the truck bellows with song as Days delivers packages along his FedEx route through the north end of Hilton Head Island.
As he barrels down Marshland Road, or up to the doors of Hilton Head Hospital, he sings. He hums. He even imitates the instrumental parts of the songs sung by the Voices of El Shaddai choir.
Days sings every part of each song. As the choir’s director, he has to know them all.
He’s been driving the same route for FedEx for 20 years, watching the areas around Hunter Road, Palmetto Hall, Marshland Road, Indigo Run and Spanish Wells grow up.
“So many new subdivisions have changed the whole outlook of the north end of the island. I feel both happy and sad, because you have to accept change, but you just don’t want it to take away the beauty of Hilton Head,” Days said. “Too much of anything isn’t a good thing.”
Days, 50, will explain that he wasn’t technically born here, because Hilton Head Hospital wasn’t yet established. Instead, he was born in Savannah. But his family name, Burke, will assert he’s as native as it gets.
He remembers when you could cross from his house in Chaplin to what is now Burkes Beach without looking both ways on the quiet street.
And he remembers when he knew everyone on the island, regardless of whether they were Black or white. These days, that’s impossible. Still, as he drives, he tries to get to know everyone.
“On that north end, it consists of good, bad, rich, poor,” he said. “And the way that I operate, I treat everybody the same, whether you live in Windmill Harbour on the marina or you live in a trailer park.”
As he drives his truck and sings songs from the Bible, Days thinks about how important it is to share the Hilton Head he knows and loves with others.
He ticks off all the land masses he has seen cleared, developed into subdivisions, and then populated over the years. He talks about them based on their proximity to his pastor’s house or another pastor he knows.
Days understands why people flock here for the beaches and vacation year after year.
It’s the same reason he has stayed here his entire life: The natural beauty. It’s on full display for him as he drives the island’s bridges, Live Oak covered streets and waterfront roads.
This year, nearly everything in Days’ life changed except his FedEx route.
When the coronavirus pandemic began, The Voices of El Shaddai choir stopped rehearsing on Friday nights.
He stopped going to church in person on Sunday morning.
He helped teach his pastor at Queen Chapel AME Church how to use Zoom to hold services.
He bought a house in Bluffton.
And work got a lot busier.
On a normal day a year ago, Days would make around 70 stops per day on his route to deliver gifts, paperwork and online shopping purchases.
Today, he makes between 90 and 100 stops.
His route puts him on the front line of some of the most heartbreaking aspects of the pandemic.
“I’ve delivered urns for the funeral homes and body bags for the hospital,” he said. “I deliver good news, bad news, all of it.”
Still, his job has many bright spots.
People he sees on his route are so appreciative of his services, he said. He’s delivered online purchases and medication and cards from family members that his customers can’t see anymore.
Days has enjoyed the many little gift baskets, including wrapped snacks and water, that customers have left outside for delivery drivers. As he’s walked away from front doors this year, customers have yelled their appreciation for his ability to connect them with the world as they’re staying home.
“It makes you smile on the inside, and it’s really the little things that push us through,” Days said. “We’re the engine that’s running America right now.”
Hope is on the horizon.
This past week, Days found out he is eligible to be vaccinated. He’s in the process of signing up for an appointment, likely to be in April.
Once it’s safe again, he can’t wait to reconvene with his fellow choir members, which represent nearly every historically Black church on the island, to recreate their glorious sounds.
Undoubtedly, they’ll have a more appreciative audience than the current beneficiary of the music: Day’s FedEx truck and all the packages waiting to be delivered.
This story was originally published January 18, 2021 at 4:43 AM.
