A Moray woman is celebrating forty years of loyal service as postmistress to her local community.
Doreen Aldridge took up the position at Archiestown Post Office on March 5, 1983 and has run the branch on the High Street ever since.
The 77-year was born and raised in the area and moved to the village with her husband, Eddie Aldridge, 40 years ago when the post office was a risk of closure.
“They were having difficulty getting someone, so it seemed sensible to take it on,” she said. “I enjoy being at the heart of the village. I am the main source of information because people know my husband and I have a good knowledge of the area.
“If people want to know what’s going on in the village they pop in and I can tell them about events.”
To celebrate her loyal commitment, Mrs Aldridge was presented with the Post Office 40 Years’ Long Service Award this month.
‘Pillar of the community’
Over the past four decades, Mrs Aldridge has witnessed a lot of change and had to adapt to new ways of working.
“Work has changed a lot,” she said. “It went from letters and lots of writing to all the new systems. But it’s always been about meeting people.
“I managed to keep the branch open throughout the pandemic as I know how important it was to have access to Post Office services and groceries.
“Elgin is the nearest place for a bank and people needed to do banking and pay their bills here. Lots of people were doing home shopping and there were lots of returns and people sending letters and parcels to people that they could not see.”
The postmistress makes sure the post office is open to the community every day and has no plans to give up up the role any time soon.
“It’ll be a case of death or disease,” she added.
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