How a quick-thinking mail carrier helped save a Bluffton woman’s life
Something was definitely wrong.
Mail carrier Adrianne Collins pulled up to the Rose Hill Plantation home of an elderly client and noticed the mail was piling up — unusual, because the resident reliably picked up her mail every day and hadn’t put a hold on her account. It was Oct. 2, and the mail hadn’t been retrieved in five days.
“Some people like shopping, some people like going out with friends — her thing was her mail,” said Collins, an independent contractor for the United States Postal Service.
She knocked on the resident’s door and windows. No answer. The car was still in the garage.
Collins decided to call Rose Hill security, which brought along Beaufort County sheriff’s deputies. They scaled a wall to look through a window and saw the woman lying on the floor in medical distress. Officials summoned Bluffton Fire and EMS responders, who broke into the home and took the woman to the hospital.
She survived.
Neighbors and Rose Hill security chief Joseph Schetting have lauded Collins for her life-saving actions, especially during a year that underscored the importance of first responders and postal workers. On Oct. 2, Collins was both.
In a letter to Bluffton postmaster Teri Yardley, Schetting explained and extolled Collins’ actions.
“I know you may get complaints from time to time from customers but I wanted to make sure that Ms. Collins was recognized for her exceptional actions,” Schetting wrote. “I see her each day delivering mail throughout our community and I am always met with a big wave and a big smile. She is an asset to the Postal Service.”
Collins, a Savannah native and mom of three, has been a mail carrier for Rose Hill for four years. She says mail carriers are trained to be attentive to changes in customer behavior, such as the resident’s.
“I was just scared for her,” Collins said. “We live in a crazy world.”
Rose Hill security declined to identify the woman.
Melanie Beckler, a Rose Hill resident who’d heard of Collins’ heroic actions, said Collins could have ignored the situation and gone on with her business. But that is not who she is.
“She really gets to know all the neighbors that she delivers the mail to,” Beckler said. “She knows my dog. She knows when my neighbors aren’t home. She really goes the extra mile.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 10:29 AM.
