Postal carrier Kathy Marlow makes final delivery after 28 years

Kathy Marlow’s postal route in Ocoee has always been more than a job for her. It has been a way of making connections and making a difference in the community she served for 28 years with the Ocoee Post Office. Her last day was Sept. 29.

She delivered letters, bills, packages and other mail to customers in nearly eight neighborhoods — Westyn Park, Willows on the Lake, Parkside, Coventry, Richfield Cove, Waterside and Johio Bay; half of The Reserve; and a few single homes along Johio Shores Drive. But also she forged friendships, became the official Santa Claus letter writer, organized fundraisers for people in need and served as a Night to Shine prom buddy for the son of a longtime customer.

The announcement of Marlow’s retirement came as a disappointment to the residents on her route — including a few to whom she has delivered from the start. She has a stack of retirement and goodbye cards from her customers, and she keeps on her refrigerator school pictures and family Christmas cards through the years.

“When I started, I probably had maybe three neighborhoods … but I have seen subdivisions build from start to finish,” Marlow said. “I’ve watched couples move into the house, they’re married, they have children and now their children are grown. You figure 28 years … I have a section on my refrigerator here — a couple of families on my route, Christmas cards and photos and stuff. I was out for foot surgery one year, and (the customer) brought her kids to see me.”

Marlow was hired in 1994 for a part-time position as a rural letter carrier substitute. There were two routes at the time; now there are 10.

A TYPICAL DAY

The first business of the day for letter carriers is to check their vehicle for safety, and then they start gathering the flat mail — letters, bills, magazines and newspapers— and sorting them by customer address. After those are loaded in the vehicle, then the packages go in.

“Ever since COVID, there are so many more packages,” Marlow said of the increase in online shopping. “One guy, on his route, (delivers) 400 to 500 packages a day. He has to make two and three trips.”

Marlow especially enjoyed delivering the good news: the birthday and anniversary cards, wedding invitations, and birth announcements.

“You really were a part of their family; you get to know the kids,” she said. “You see the birthday cards coming in. … You might see them out walking, ‘Oh I’m looking for my dog.’”

In all her years with the post office, she had only one bad incident involving a dog, she said. In March, a customer opened his door and the dog, weighing about 60 pounds, went straight for Marlow, biting her on the chest and leg and scratching her leg.

“It probably took a couple of months for me — if I heard a dog bark, I was on high alert,” she said.

The most unusual piece of mail she delivered was a coconut.

“Just a coconut with an address,” she said with a laugh.

She also made a mess of one delivery that wasn’t properly sealed.

“We delivered a lot of Walmart packages, and they aren’t packaged very well, and by the time I got this one package to the door, it had ripped open (and the contents mixed),” she said. “There was dog food and flour and soap detergent all in one box.”

There are some customers along the route that make even the worst days better. Among them is her longtime friend, Keaton Royal, a young boy with special needs who has grown up and now is about 31. Marlow has attended A Night to Shine at Family Church as Royal’s buddy for several years.

“I never had the nerve to tell him I was going to retire,” she admitted. “This is what makes it hard to retire. And then it’s hard when you get close to somebody and they pass away. That’s a heartbreaker. I had another couple celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, and they invited me to their renewal of their marriage vows. They were both able to wear their wedding attire from their wedding day. … he has since passed away. She said, ‘You need to stay in touch with me.’

That makes it hard.”

SPECIAL DELIVERY

About 15 years ago, Marlow noticed some letters from children to Santa Claus. She put them on her supervisor’s desk, assuming someone was responding to the Christmas lists.

“One year after Christmas, I looked in the trash can and it was full of letters,” she said. “I was devastated.”

She vowed the next year would be different. She designated a tray for Santa letters and asked the carriers to write down the addresses from which they came so she could respond to them. There are about 50 each year. Marlow printed the form letters, added the children’s names and signed Santa’s name. Eventually, she added some stickers and candy canes to sweeten the delivery.

One heartwarming letter has stayed in Marlow’s mind since the moment she read it, and she said it was the only time she felt compelled to step in to help. A young girl living with her grandmother wrote Santa and said her grandmother was ill, they didn’t have much money and there wouldn’t be any presents Christmas morning.

Marlow said she and her postmaster bought some gifts for the little girl and secretly dropped them off for the grandmother.

“I don’t really think she asked for anything,” Marlow said. “She was concerned for her grandmother’s health. … I was like, ‘We’ve got to get this girl something.’ They still live there, and now the girl is a teenager.”

Marlow often made deliveries of another kind too. She was known for her big pot of sausage gravy and biscuits and her crock pot of white chicken chili, as well as her holiday banana bread.

When she announced her retirement, several employees asked if they still will receive their loaf in December.

Her compassion and food sharing has extended beyond the post office walls, and for years she as collected money from employees to buy up to 30 holiday meals for some of the less-fortunate families in Ocoee. Carriers distributed the food at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

She has been known to organize fundraisers as well, including one for a carrier diagnosed with cancer and for a friend whose home in Ocoee was struck by lightning.

This summer, Marlow was on the receiving end of generosity when postal employees threw her a retirement party. Now that she has reached retirement, she plans to continue volunteering at her granddaughter’s elementary school, she wants to spend more time with her elderly parents, and she and husband Ron are making plans to travel, with a trip to St. Thomas in the near future.