St. Davids village postmaster retires after 30 years

After 30 years with Canada Post, Barb Pearson, postmaster at the St. Davids branch, has retired.

She worked her last day Thursday, with a brief ceremony to mark the occasion, as village residents stopped by to pick up their mail and congratulate her.

Pearson, a St. Davids resident, had just recently returned from a six-week vacation in Texas with her husband Frank. They’ve already done quite a bit of travelling, pulling a trailer, and hope for lots more of those trips in the future, especially to warm places during cold Canadian winters, she says.

Pearson recalls her first job with Canada Post was as a casual, part-time worker in Queenston.

She then went to Niagara Falls, and after that Ridgeway, a village in Fort Erie, where she served as postmaster.

She spent the last 10 years of her career in St. Davids, where she was happy to work with residents she has known for years, and not too far from home.

She and Frank brought up their family, Frank Jr., Scott and Rachel, on Tanbark Road, but in 2006, as that area of St. Davids became more built up, the couple moved to Line 7.

Rachel is now raising her sons in the village, and has worked for Canada Post for the last four years. She’s taken on her mom’s job, holding down the fort until a new postmaster is selected, she says.

Connie Flagg, a local operations superintendent for Canada Post, was at the St. Davids Post Office Wednesday to congratulate Pearson on her retirement.

“She is by far the best team leader I’ve ever worked for,” says Flagg, who was first hired by Pearson at the Ridgeway post office, almost two decades ago.

“I’ve done many retirement speeches in my career at Canada Post, and I usually don’t struggle to find words of congratulations and warm wishes, but this retirement speech was a little different. For you Barb, I feel an extra special responsibility to truly communicate how grateful I am, for not only your years of service, but also for you personally in my own work life and career.”

Flagg was working in Port Colborne and “hoping against hope that I could somehow transfer to Ridgeway,” she says. “My husband moved before we could, and he visited the office and spoke to Barb about me, and Barb graciously said that she was willing to give me a chance. My first actual hired position was in the Ridgeway office and Barb was my postmaster,” says Flagg.

A few years ago Barb, who had for a long time been interested in raising bees, was given a bee hive by her kids. Raising bees and collecting honey have become a hobby for her, “a labour of love,” she says, that she will now have more time to devote to, with Frank, who helps her.

To those coming to say goodbye to her at the post office Thursday, she handed a small jar
of home-made honey, with a label that says, “It’s been sweet!” 

Flagg, aided by Rachel with posters, used Barb’s bee-keeping hobby in her retirement speech, which she called “What You Need to Bee a Successful Postmaster.”

First, she said, you need to “Bee interested in your team members, which Barb always was.

“I have lovely memories of your team Christmas parties at the fire hall and in your home,” she told Barb — Frank is a retired volunteer firefighter. 

“You took the time to make your team members feel special and appreciated,” she told Barb, who dropped off baskets of fruit at Flagg’s door for her sons “when they were in their hungry teenager years.”

She listed other kindnesses Barb showed for her fellow employees, “which may have seemed like small gestures at the time but they certainly had a positive effect on her team.

Barb also learned how to do everything within an office, and showed a confidence and ability to transfer the knowledge to others. She showed an engaging presence with customers, solving problems and maintaining a rapport with them “that is legend. If I had a dollar for every time that you were mentioned by name in the monthly customer surveys, I would be a rich person,” says Flagg.

Barb also shared her sense of humour, at times self-deprecating, and at other times with a “wicked and witty take on things.”

When she visited St. Davids, Flagg says, Barb always made her feel better, “a gift that I and many others will miss the most.”

As Barb enjoyed her last few hours at the St. Davids post office, she said it was a gift to end her career working there, “reconnecting wth my community. I loved my time here.”

But, she laughs, she expects to love her retirement even more.