“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

This postal service motto has especially rung true for Diane Turner, a mail carrier at the Walnutport Post Office who is retiring after 37 dedicated years of service.

Prior to being a mail carrier, Turner worked at Bethlehem Steel and General Electric in New York. She first began working for the post office in 1984 upon moving back into the Walnutport area. The previous mail carrier for the route asked her to be a substitute, which eventually led to Turner taking over the route entirely and making it her new career.

“Didn’t think I’d be here for 37 years, but it worked out good though,” Turner said.

Turner’s daily routine as a mail carrier consisted of sorting the mail and getting it in order, taking it out to the delivery trucks and delivering it to those on her mail route. For many of her years at the post office, she worked six days a week.

Turner was always a hard worker, always trying her best to make sure all of her customers got their mail on time.

“I don’t think I’ve ever skipped. I mean maybe there were times where I’ve gotten stuck and couldn’t go anymore but I made the best effort I could,” she said.

Throughout her time on the job, the worst aspects tended to be the weather conditions that she would face including the snow and the heat.

“I used to take a thermometer in the vehicle with me and it would get over 100 degrees and when you have to sit in the vehicle for 4-5 hours, that’s really challenging,” said Turner.

Despite difficult weather conditions, there were benefits to the job as well. Turner noted that at one point the delivery routes were consolidated after noticing that many of the carriers’ routes were crossing one another. This led to each mail carrier being assigned to their own areas to deliver to, which ended up being fortunate for Turner.

“I was fortunate because I got to deliver my own mail and my parents’ mail so that gave me the opportunity to check on them as they got older and it gave me the opportunity to let my dogs out. I was very blessed to have that.”

Turner also was grateful to have kind coworkers and customers during her time working at the post office. Her coworkers even threw her a party with food, cake and presents upon her retirement.

“I was blessed to work with good people and customers. I have really nice customers on my route. There’s not one person, not right now anyway, that was a problem. I mean over the years you’re always gonna have somebody, but almost everybody was very, very nice.”

Turner said that she would be sad moving on because she would miss her coworkers, customers and dogs that she would see on her mail route, one of her favorite parts about her job. Often, the dogs would recognize the mail truck approaching and come out to greet Turner. She would even give the dogs treats.

She hopes to still see some of the people and their dogs as she will still be living in the Walnutport area.

Turner explained that her mail carrier job granted her the opportunity to spend important time with her family as opposed to working at an office job.

“This wasn’t my dream job but when I look back I’m glad I had it. It gave me opportunities I wouldn’t have had if I would have kept working in offices. My kids played sports in high school and I was lucky enough that I could go see their sports and had I been working somewhere else, I wouldn’t have had that opportunity.”

Now that she is retired, Turner hopes to have more time to get things done around her house and hopefully travel. Dream destinations include Alaska and national parks within the United States.

In regards to her time working at the post office, Turner said, “It happened by chance, but in the long run it was a good thing.”