SAN ANTONIO – Marcos Perez made his final deliveries for the United States Postal Service on Monday after delivering thousands of letters and packages and getting to know the community along his route for almost three decades.
Perez is retiring after 30 years with the USPS. He delivered mail to the West Side neighborhood Collins Garden for 28 years.
The mailman has gotten to know almost all 650 residents.
“It’s emotional,” Perez said.
“Marcos is just one mailman that touches everyone’s heart,” said Cruz Martinez, a Collins Garden resident.
“Consistency -- he’s always been real personable,” said Joesph Montez, another resident.
Perez walks eight to nine miles a day, even in the worst weather.
“It looks easy, but it’s not,” he said. “Like Saturday was a rough day because it rained all day. There was no dry spot on your body.”
Perez has been bit three times by dogs, but he doesn’t dwell on it.
“You just brush it off,” Perez said. “It’s like falling off the horse. You just get back up.”
He says he could have easily transferred to a neighborhood where he could drive or one in a different part of town. But something very important made him stay.
“I fell in love with the people,” Perez said.
The Collins Garden neighborhood wanted him to know that he was loved and appreciated and that he would be greatly missed. Several neighbors have put out signs, messages and balloons thanking him for his service.
At one point, several residents waited outside their homes as he walked on the street, cheering him on all together and blowing horns as he made his final deliveries.
“Thank you for being so nice to me. If you treat people with respect, they’ll respect you back,” he said as his final message to the neighbors.
Perez has the following advice for future USPS workers:
“Come to work every day and give it your all. Give the service you are supposed to give. That’s what the United States Postal Service is supposed to do -- provide service.”