Josh Hefta is a postman in North Dakota, USA, but one day, although he thought it would be a day like any other, he became something he never thought he would become: a hero. Here’s how it happened.
Josh brings the correspondence from the same houses every day, so he knows who lives in the area he covers.
One of the clients he had begun to know very well was a 94-year-old woman, Alice Paschke.
For Alice, Josh went beyond what his job required and left his correspondence on the doorstep so that the old woman would not have to walk too far to the mailbox in front of the house.
One day in January this year, during his regular route, Josh noticed that something was not quite normal when he arrived at Alice. Usually, the woman would go out to talk for a while, live alone, and be eager to talk, sometimes even offering Josh something to eat or drink. The two had a more special relationship, we might say.
But recently, it had become far too difficult for Alice to move, barely leaving the house. So Josh, who knew his health problems, got out of the car, walked to the door, and left his correspondence right at the door, a gesture he was not obliged to do at all.
But on this January day, Josh knocked on her door and no one answered, so she worried, kept knocking on the door, and finally heard a faint voice calling for help.
Josh knew he had to act fast. The door was locked, so he had to break it when he entered the house he found
Alice on the floor, had fallen a day ago and could not get up, had been lying there for over 20 hours! She knew that her only hope was for Josh to find her, and fortunately he realized it and managed to save her.
“I said, come in, I need help. And it saved my life. This is the truth. For the rest of my life, as long as my memory works, I will remember him. ” For his deed, Josh received the highest award a postman can receive in the United States.