On April 27, the day that mile-wide tornado swept across Alabama, Crane Hill Postmaster Sarah Harris was in between storms and was about to seek cover for the second time that day when 69-year-old Highway Contract Driver Billy Keller arrived at his normal time.
When she saw him, she knew right away that nothing was normal that afternoon and that worrying about the approaching storm would have to wait.
Usually, he laughed and joked, but on this day, he sat on a stool and winced in pain. “Billy, are you okay?” she asked.
He told her that his chest hurt and that his left arm was heavy and numb. “It feels as if it weighs 500 pounds,” he said.
Sarah immediately recognized the symptoms--she is the only Postmaster in Alabama who is also a registered nurse--and insisted that they call for help. “Billy, I’m going to run next door and get the fire department.” She ran out the door, up a hill, and motioned to the firehouse staff to come right away.
When the EMT arrived and said that they needed to call for an ambulance, Billy protested. He had been having the pain throughout the day, but it always seemed better after he rested for a while. “I’ve got to get the mail to Cullman,” he insisted.
Both Sarah and Billy had grown up on local farms, and on hot days, one of them would often say to the other, “This is cotton pickin’ weather.” On this day, Sarah recognized the severity of the situation, even if Billy didn’t. She had to convince him to wait for the ambulance. “You and I are both going to pick cotton again,” she told him. “Stay where you are.”
And wait they did. Because of debris in the road and downed power lines from the storm, the ambulance didn't arrive until 90 minutes later.
When it finally got there, Billy’s protests began again, and Sarah had heard enough. “I’m not good at strong-arming people,” she said. “But I said to him, ‘Bill, you lay down right now and go with these people’”
Her actions saved his life. One artery in his heart had a 99% blockage. “They usually call that a widow maker,” Sarah told us later.
Because of her persistence, Billy is now recovered and is back at work. When we visited Crane Hill and wanted to snap a picture of the two of them together, we asked them to step outside, where the light was better.
Look at the background. We were going to move them elsewhere, but Billy wanted us to take the picture where they stood. Laughing, he said, “You can tell everyone that’s where Sarah kept me from ending up.”
Sarah is happy that Billy is still trucking on down the road, but says that her proudest moment as a Postmaster came later that week, when everyone in her office worked together to serve the Crane Hill community.
They were without electricity and running water for five days, and there were gas shortages in the area. She served customers through the door, using printed charts and an old manual scale. Everyone cased mail by candlelight. Carriers waited in line for hours to have enough gas to complete their routes.
“We got the mail delivered every day,” she said. “Through downed power lines and trees, no electricity, gas shortages, we never missed a delivery.”
“To the community, the mail means getting back to normal,” she said. “I’m so proud of my people.
After 30 years of Postal service, Sarah is retiring in May. Her mother had also worked for the Postal Service until she was 81 years old. What will remain in her absence is a legacy of service that will indeed be missed in Crane Hill, Alabama.
