Mailman Makes Little Boy's Dreams Come True Every Single Day
One Tennessee mailman calls daily visits with favorite customer 4-year-old Carter Lawson “the best part of my day.” (Photo: KSDK)
Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night can separate Tennessee postal carrier “Mailman Mike” from his 4-and-a-half year old buddy Carter Lawson — or keep them from their appointed rounds.
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For the past nine months, the two have teamed up every day in the preschooler’s Knoxville neighborhood for a few minutes of delivering mail together and chatting with fellow residents. Lawson wants to be a mail carrier when he grows up, and in an inspiring story, his mom told KSDK how the veteran mailman, Mike Crenshaw, has been a role model to her son.
Photo: KSDK
“Anyone could just be like ‘Go away, kid,’ but Mike has really gone out of his way to interact with Carter,” said Cassie Lawson of the United States Postal Service carrier. “It’s been really cute.” (The Lawson family didn’t respond to Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment). Little Carter even got his own outfit to match Mike’s. “I just couldn’t believe he got a full mailman’s costume,“ the postal service employee told KSDK. Not that he minds.
Photo: KSDK
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“Every letter carrier has stops he looks forward to and this is the one I look forward to every day,” said Mike. “He’s the end of my day, and the best part of my day. Not just because it’s the end, because he’s such a cute little guy.”
The man and his mini-me’s connection isn’t a surprise to Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. Kids respond to mailmen because “letter carriers are a friendly, uniformed part of the neighborhood who bring something to their house every day, and are someone they come to recognize and trust,” Rolando tells Yahoo Parenting. “It’s the same for the elderly, but in addition, letter carriers may be the only person they interact with all day.”
Photo: KSDK
In both cases, he continues, “it’s the sense of normalcy they bring to every community,” that makes an impact. That and their extraordinary good deeds. In 2013, according to the U.S. Postal Service, 262 Postal Service employees were recognized as heroes. If Carter could vote, no doubt “Mailman Mike” would make the list in 2015.
“Carriers care and truly give a part of themselves with each and every delivery,” U.S. Postal Service Corporate Communications manager Toni DeLancey tells Yahoo Parenting. “They are moms, sisters, brothers, fathers and aunts and uncles themselves… They know what a special time delivery of mail and packages can often be. There is no greater joy than being a part of touching someone’s life like that each day.”
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