Friday, October 24, 2025
She reunited two customers with their lost wedding photo
The retail associate never lost hope she would find the couple
For almost a year, Harvest, AL, residents Dwayne and Alma “Jeannie” Taylor planned a celebration for their 30th wedding anniversary.
This included Jeannie ordering an enlargement of one of their wedding photos.
However, the photo never arrived at their home. Instead, unbeknown to the couple, the picture somehow made its way to the Harvest Post Office.
“There was no name or address on it,” said Rosalind Smith, a retail associate at the office. “It must have fallen out of its mailing tube.”
Smith put the photo to the side, hoping for the chance to give it to its rightful recipients one day.
Many months later, Dwayne Taylor came to the Post Office to mail a package. As soon as Smith saw him, she knew he was the groom in the wedding photo.
“I’ve been a customer in that Post Office before, but I hadn’t been there in a while,” Taylor said. “When Rosalind saw me, she was like, ‘Where’ve you been? I’ve been waiting for you!’”
Taylor confirmed that his wife had in fact ordered the photo enlargement. Smith couldn’t locate it right away, so Taylor gave her his phone number.
The retail associate searched furiously and uncovered it minutes later. When she called Taylor, her hands were shaking.
“My wife and I had gotten about two miles away when Rosalind called,” Taylor said. “We were in shock.”
The couple turned right around. They were soon holding their wedding photo and taking a picture with Smith inside the Post Office.
“It’s a picture for the ages,” Taylor said. “We’ll be telling this story forever.”
“It made a difference to me just to see that I made this couple happy,” Smith said. “This made for a brighter day.”
The timing was opportune because the couple’s anniversary was just a week away.
“Hats off to the postal workers,” Taylor said. “They work hard, and you don’t know what they go through to get mail and packages to you. Rosalind went above and beyond.”
Said Smith: “God is amazing. I hadn’t seen this man all year, but then he walked right in. It was meant to be. This is why I love my job. Someone was made happy today.”
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People
Dedicated to the one they loved
A Post Office is named for a retail associate, employees receive safety training and a postal float is a parade hit
The Washington Crossing, PA, Post Office has been dedicated to a former retail associate who was known for her helpful, welcoming nature.
Susan Barnhart was beloved by her colleagues and customers at Washington Crossing and Newtown, the other eastern Pennsylvania Post Office where she worked, until she died in a flash flood that ravaged the area in 2023.
Speakers at a recent dedication ceremony praised Barnhart for her kindness, concern for others and love for her job.
“Today, we honor someone who isn’t a national celebrity or war hero, but a person whose personal touch resonated with the people she served. Certainly, Susan deserves this high honor,” said Ed Williamson, manager of the Postal Service’s Delaware-Pennsylvania 2 District.
Lynda Barnhart remembered her sister for leaving a lasting impression on everyone she met.
“The Post Office was never just a job to her,” she said. “Her joy was helping others. She was the first person to help anyone she could, in any way she could.”
Susan also loved dogs, and she was with one of her dogs, Koda, when the disastrous floods came. Town residents found Koda walking through a neighborhood two days later, dragging his leash, headed toward the Post Office.
Accountability and care
The Postal Service’s Minnesota-North Dakota District recently held safety incident investigation training to ensure employees are fully equipped to thoroughly and effectively manage on-the-job accidents.
The training emphasized the importance of identifying and addressing root causes, giving participants the tools to not only react to emergencies but also prevent future occurrences.
“Safety isn’t just about responding to incidents — it’s about learning from them so we can prevent them from happening again,” said Kevin Schiung, a Minneapolis customer services supervisor and district safety captain. “This training gave us the tools to dig deeper into root causes and build a stronger culture of accountability and care.”
Hit parade
Local Post Office employees recently participated in an annual parade in Pine Valley, CA, a small mountain community 45 miles east of San Diego.
The office’s float was a hit, thanks to its display of a miniature Post Office and local kids sporting postal shirts, as well as a tyke who used a ride-on LLV to join the procession.
“Joining in the parade is a big thing because the Post Office is the main place in Pine Valley. It’s where everyone meets and greets each other,” said Mary Lanier, a local highway contract route driver who rode on the float.
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News Quiz
Author! Author!
Who wrote the Postal Service’s new history book?
“News Quiz” is a weekly feature that lets you test your knowledge of recent Link stories. The correct answers appear at the end.
1. Who wrote “Delivering for America: How the United States Postal Service Built a Nation,” the Postal Service’s new history book?
a) James H. Bruns
b) Winifred Gallagher
c) Stephen Kochersperger
d) Devin Leonard
2. Where did a fully automated Post Office open on Oct. 20, 1960?
a) Hartford, CT
b) Manchester, NH
c) Providence, RI
d) Springfield, MA
3. True or false: The Postal Service’s enhanced self-service kiosks have been shown to cut customer wait times in retail lobbies by 20 percent.
a) True
b) False
4. Fill in the blank: The USPS historian’s office recently published a biography of (blank), who served as postmaster general in the 1830s.
a) Francis Granger
b) Amos Kendall
c) John M. Niles
d) Charles A. Wickliffe
5. Match the Postal Service employee in Column A with the heroic act he or she recently performed in Column B.
Column A
a) Victor Castaneda, Glendale, CA, letter carrier
b) Patricia Durrell, Pomfret Center, CT, rural carrier
c) Nicholas Hernandez, Kihei, HI, rural carrier associate
d) Joseph Kornack, San Francisco carrier technician
Column B
I) Aided a man who had fallen on ice
II) Aided a woman who had fainted on a sidewalk
III) Helped extinguish a car fire
IV) Helped extinguish a residential fire
Answers: 1) a. 2) c. 3) b. The kiosks have been shown to cut wait times by 40 percent. 4) b. 5) a. IV., b. I., c. III., d. II.