A tragedy avoided by an UPS driver like no other

 We all have some kind of attachment to the place where we spend 8 hours on a daily basis. No matter how much we dislike our jobs, there’s at least one good thing about it, be it the co-workers or the wages or the work itself. Some people love their jobs more than anything. 

Todd Holland, a Navy veteran and father of three has a keen eye for details. That’s the thing about military training, it’ll affect their perspective permanently. People who have been part of military training at any point of time tend to be more cautious and pay more attention to details compared to civilians.

Even after retiring from the Navy, Todd Holland had no plans of living a laid back life. His idea of an ideal life meant one where he continued working and being active. Which is why he chose to apply for work on the days he should ideally just relax and enjoy his free time. All that was left for him to do was find out which job suited his description. 

Todd applied to be a UPS driver, a job he spent 25 years doing with love. He had a simple role of delivering the packages house to house.

 At age 55, he was one of the most reliable workers of the company. Over his 25 years of service, Todd was neither late nor irregular when it came to his duty, he set a high standard to follow for other employees of the firm.

Todd loved his job, and what’s more than that, he loved the daily interactions he had with regular customers. All was going well and steady in his life until the day one of his customers disappeared without notice.

 The customer was an old man who lived with a rottweiler, his only companion as it seemed. The pair always lived quietly without disturbing anyone. Despite being friendly, the man and his dog rarely mingled with the neighbors.

It was Friday morning when Todd passed by the area, everything was normal except for the old man’s house. The old man was neither in the front yard nor on the porch. He has always found him sitting on a chair contemplating his existence or reading the newspaper. Not once in the past 25 years has ever found his porch or yard empty. Todd grew anxious about his old friend and what was keeping him inside.

Todd had a package to deliver to him and instead of leaving the package there, he rang the bell many times but no one answered. 

Assuming no one was home and everything was fine. Tood decided to come back later that day to make sure he received the parcel personally.

 

Although Todd moved ahead with his work, he couldn’t stop thinking about what could’ve happened to his friend.  It was very unusual of him not to show up or answer his door, he kept trying to convince himself that his friend must’ve had a reason to his absence and that everything was fine.

Todd came back to the old mate’s place at dusk. Again, no one answered the doorbell. That’s when the UPS delivery driver thought that he was just being paranoid and overreacting. He didn’t know everything about the man and he too might have occasional plans. He shrugged off all the doubts and left the package at his doorstep.

On Monday, Todd wasn’t assigned any delivery in the old man’s locality. The day passed away quickly without even a thought of the old man. 

Tuesday seemed fully occupied, but that’s the day where the awful news fell on him. When Todd was going through the lengthy list of deliveries, he noticed the name of the elderly person. Todd thought this would be the ideal opportunity to check up on his old friend..

This man’s name was at the end of the list which meant Todd would only get to see him when he made all the deliveries.

After delivering all the packages of the day, Todd was finally heading towards his friend’s driveway. He pulled his truck and unfastened his seatbelt to take out the parcel from the back of the truck. He unloaded the truck and headed to the porch, excited to see his old friend again.

Unexpectedly, Todd’s friend wasn’t on the door to greet him. Yet again,  Todd was overwhelmed with worry and he started panicking for real.

Especially after he noticed that the package he dropped outside last Friday was exactly where he left it. He rang the bell and again there wasn’t any answer. 

Todd tried to look inside through the windows but he couldn’t see anyone. The only thing he could see was the TV left on. He started to knock at the door and shouting the man’s name as loudly as he could, sadly, there was no response from the other side. By this moment, Todd started to panic, it was time he did something.

Todd decided to turn the doorknob and to his surprise, the door opened. If no one answered the doorbell then why wasn’t the door locked? If the door wasn’t locked then who was inside? 

Todd could have called the police and stayed out of the matter, even his gut feeling was urging him to run and leave the place, but he felt that he had to go in and check for himself to see what happened to his friend. He could hear a loud barking sound, probably the barking of his old man’s dog. The dog was left alone in the backyard, which was very worrying as his friend would never abandon his dog for so long!

The Rottweiler was barking from the backyard. Todd shouted, “Hello?” to no answer. As he didn’t see any presence in the house, he kept on walking ahead.

Todd found his friend lying on the floor, unmoving. Todd stood there in shock , he didn’t even know if the man was alive or not, he blamed himself for not following his gut feeling the last Friday, maybe things could have been different had he decided to check on him when he felt things weren’t right.

Todd’s heart was buried under the heavy stone of guilt. He knew there was nothing he could have done to turn back the time but he did what he could. He kneeled down to check the elderly man’s pulse, to his surprise, the man was still breathing, hardly, but he was breathing.

 The man opened his mouth, the first words to come out were, “I love you.” Todd immediately called 911 and sat next to his laying friend. The help arrived quickly, and before the man was wheeled away, he uttered the horrifying truth of the past weekend to Todd and the paramedics.

The elderly man told the paramedics that he had been unable to get up for the past 7 days! He cried at the top of his voice but no one came for his rescue. Had Todd not come up to his rescue when he did, the old man wouldn’t have survived another night.

“I started beating on the door, hollering his name, calling the house again. I tried the door and it was unlocked, so I opened the door and stuck my head in. That’s when I saw him, laying on the floor…I just wish I could have found him Friday,” recalled Todd with tears in his eyes. But his friend had a different view of the tragic incident

“A close friend of mine said it was just not in God’s will to find him Friday, that God has got a plan for everything and it was his plan for me to find him yesterday,” explained Todd. But can anyone else read signs as Todd did? Because accidents like this one take place every day and this can happen to anyone we know.

“If you deliver to people — and a lot of people that we deliver to, especially in these rural areas, us, the FedEx man and the mailman might be the only people they see during the week,” explained Todd. He tries to spread awareness about the necessity of being alert all the time. 

“I made it a point to tell the guys at work this morning. I told them if you realize and get a gut feeling that something is wrong, check it out. It probably is,” claimed the Navy Veteran. he further added, “Everyone is busy, but we have to stay aware when something doesn’t seem right.”

“There is no reason this man should be alive today — he’s the miracle,” said Todd who found a new goal in his life. He tries to talk to every new employee in his company about the seriousness of the moments like he had. And on top of everything, if humans won’t show humanity towards each other than who else will?