One family in Illinois has a lot to be thankful for this year — and an extra guest at the Thanksgiving table — thanks to a selfless act by a stranger.
On Saturday, Nov. 16, Guy Miller was walking his dog Bentley outside his home in Aurora when United States Postal Service (USPS) employee Jaylen Lockhart noticed him fall, NBC Chicago reports.
Lockhart said he saw Miller “tumbling” through the rearview mirror of his pickup truck, and quickly got out to help him and called 9-1-1. After flagging down some neighbors, he got Miller’s address and told his wife, Marcia, that he was hurt.
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Stock image of mail being delivered by a USPS truck. PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images
“I wasn’t sure exactly what I was getting myself into. But I knew that whatever he was going through on that field, we were going to go through it together,” Lockart told WLS-TV.
According to a post on the city government’s official Facebook account, Miller is “bruised but going to be fine.”
“Jaylen’s quick, selfless actions helped save the day,” the post added.
The incident caused Lockhart to gain an extended family in the Millers, who invited him and his loved ones to join their family for Thanksgiving.
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“I said, ‘What are you doing for Thanksgiving? You have a family? Yes?’ We said, ‘We’re family, definitely,'” Marcia recalled to NBC Chicago, noting that “it’s really good to see the kindness and compassion and care in the world.”
At the annual Aurora Winter Lights Fest, Lockhart helped light the city’s holiday tree and was presented with the Mayor’s Service Award by Mayor Richard Irvin.
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“You make all of us Auroras proud,” Irvin told Lockhart during the ceremony, according to WFLD.
It was a moment the postal worker will never forget.
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“I’m blessed and so glad to be chosen for this,” Lockhart told WFLD. “This will be near and dear to my heart.”
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Source: HIS Education