Evette Jourdain (EJ) and Craig Boddie (CB)

EJ: Life was pretty hard for me before I came to the post office. I lost my dad, I lost my brother, I became homeless, and I just didn’t have nobody.

CB: How did it feel for you when you first got your uniform and you put it on?

EJ: I felt damn proud. When you put that uniform on for the first time — you’ve got your nice shiny shoes, you got your brand new satchel, you know, you feel good.

CB: Mmm

EJ: How does it feel for you to be in this pandemic?

CB: My wife has autoimmune disease. So because of that, I fear whenever I leave the house. How do I cope? Well, of course, you know, we wear our masks. Soon as I get home, I’m strippin’. Jumpin in the shower, clean myself from head to toe. To make sure that the day is going down the drain. Everyday I wake up and just wonder, ’Is this the day that COVID-19 is gonna come home with me?’

EJ: My anxiety levels are always on 10. Because I’m scared. I pray on my way to work, I pray on my lunch break, I pray when I’m at the box. What keeps me going is the fact that I need to keep goin.

CB: That’s one of the tough things with coronavirus. We’re like a lifeline. Getting these people their medicines, their supplies. And I can’t even imagine if there was a person who passed away on my route and I did not get a chance to say goodbye or see them for the last time.

EJ: I had a customer recently on my route pass away. His son came outside and told me that, ’My father said, tell my friend Evette that I said goodbye.’ And I lost it. I couldn’t have — I didnt even know it was going to affect me like that.

CB: Cause it does get to us. Yeah.

EJ: I’m glad that we became friends. And I appreciate you. I cherish the friendship that we have, because I couldn’t do this by myself.

CB: That — that means a lot. It really does.