Kind postie joins dying man for ‘final friendly chat’ one last time

A postie joined a dying man for a final chat and a joke, after two decades of friendly banter. Anthony Jacobs, 76, sadly passed away last week, but not before seeing his loyal and cheerful postman one final time.

For the last 20 years or so, Mark Miller has been delivering post to Pond Lane in Redruth, Cornwall. Anthony’s daughter, Merom, revealed that her father led an isolated life, and Mark was often the only person he would see every day.

She said: “Dad lived quite an isolated life, not having much family apart from me, so the postman was the highlight of his day and often the only chat he had.

“It was awful once he was too ill to sit outside his front door. Seeing the postman once more made him act like himself again and we had one last flash of his personality. He was so animated and happy, and called the postman one of his dearest friends. He’s very lucky to have had the same postman for 20 years and Mark has clearly had quite a social impact on his life,” reports Cornwall Live.

“Mark has been putting a smile on his face for 20 years and has often been the company he’s had for the day. Dad would always sit outside in his chair in the sunshine and every time Mark came round, my father would say ‘you brought the sunshine with you’’ and Mark would say, ‘I tried my best specially for you!”

She added: “They’ve been having the same little joke and chat for 20 years. When my father was dying of bladder cancer and in a hospital bed in his living room, Mark delivered his post to him in his bed one day.

“My father could hardly speak, but he whispered ‘It’s my friend who brings the sunshine’ and smiled the most that I had seen in ages. I have the most touching photo of them together. It meant so much to my father that Mark brought him the sunshine one last time.”

A spokesperson for Royal Mail commented: “Every day we receive reports of our people going above and beyond in the communities they serve and Mark is yet another example of this. We are proud of the work our people do in the community, which often goes far beyond delivering mail and parcels.”