By RAHN ADAMS
BOONE, N.C. (July 4, 2025) — Isn’t it great when someone — maybe even a complete stranger — does something that exceeds your expectations? That’s how I felt yesterday when I picked up the mail at the post office.
In last month’s column, I wrote about receiving someone else’s mail in error and deciding to do more than just dropping the envelope back in the outgoing mail slot. I’ve done that before and then have received the same piece of errant mail again and again.
But this appeared to be a birthday card or an invitation, and so I put it in another, larger envelope, addressed it legibly without the abbreviation that had confused the post office mail scanner, and sent it back across the state to Elizabethtown in Bladen County, not far from where Timberley and I used to live.
How the post office confused E-town 28337 with Boone 28607 is beyond me, but, hey, it happened. It does make me wonder, though, if anyone in E-town 28337 or Boomer 28606 or Butner 28509 ever receives any of my mail.
But as I put my new pen pal Marie’s card back in the mail, I did wonder if she would respond and, if so, how she might contact me. Maybe a postcard? Maybe a posted comment on last month’s column after some internet sleuthing (even though she knew me only as “R. Adams” at my return address).
Just seeing that I’d received a card from Marie made me happy. It was gratifying to know that she hadn’t taken my good deed for granted. Later, when I opened the envelope; saw the five-dollar bill that she had enclosed inside the card; and read her note (see above), I was thrilled, not because I’d expected a reward, but because I hadn’t expected it.
After all, isn’t that what we hope for in our dealings with others? Being acknowledged for the good things we do? We really don’t want that old saying, “No good deed goes unpunished,” to be true, do we? No, we don’t.
It’s nice to know that good deeds can also be appreciated and rewarded. Thanks, Marie, for that reminder.