The servicemen and women that make society happen around us often go unappreciated. If the garbage man misses a few weeks, everything shuts down and things would be a lot smellier! Mail carriers are great examples of this too. They spend hours in the rain and cold to make sure we get our bills and checks!

This mailman has quite the story!

Most mailmen have a good feel for the neighborhoods they service. They know the ins and outs of homes, which dogs to pet, and which to run away from. They have to!

Stephen Garofalo is a mailman from Wayne, New Jersey.

Stephen knows what he is doing! He has been a mail carrier for over thirty years and knows his routes incredibly well. Most people struggle with boredom in their job after a few months, but Stephen has been consistent for decades.

Traveling in the neighborhoods for over thirty years, you know when something is wrong or out of place.

With the tenure he earned, Stephen has a sense for when something is off or out of place when he is on route. One particular day triggered that “off feeling” and resulted in something incredible.

When walking one day, he noticed a two-year-old wandering aimlessly without supervision.

Seeing a near-infant walking around the street is something that immediately triggered Stephen’s radar. Looking around, there were no siblings, parents, or babysitters to be seen. Something was wrong.

Stopping his route, he actually knew the boy by sight. He saw him with his mom pretty regularly.

Tossing his mail into the truck and getting out, he walked up to the kid and asked where his mom was. The boy seemed to be acting strangely and pointed to the house.

“…when I grabbed the child I said, ‘Where’s your mother?’ and he pointed inside.”

Deciding to go check on the mom, Stephen stumbling upon a scene he wasn’t expecting.

Walking inside to try to find the mom, he finally found her, and things didn’t look great. With the boy in hand, he snapped to action.

Stephen found Stephanie Wilson unconscious and hunched over the stroller of her son.

She was unresponsive, prompting an immediate call to 911 from Stephen. He stayed next to her and kept an eye on the little boy. Waiting for the medical team to arrive was all he had left to do.

After being rushed to the hospital, doctors said that she had a reaction between some of her medication that caused her to fall unconscious.

The medial team shared that the outcome may have been fatal if he didn’t find her when he did.

“If it wasn’t for him, the EMT wouldn’t have gotten there as quickly and I wouldn’t have been brought to the hospital.”

The USPS awarded the hero with something many of us didn’t know existed!

Honoring the man, the USPS gave him the Life-Saving Award for his actions. You never know what kind of day you might have when on your postal route!

“I feel like I’m part of this community. Actually, I’m here more than my own community.”

Stephen checks in on the family when he is in the neighborhood.

The three have a relationship now and say hello whenever Stephen is nearby.

“Every time I see him, he says ‘How are you doing today? I say I’m doing good and thank you very much. I thank him every day.”

Check out the video below!

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Source: Spotlight Stories, Apost, CBS