FRAMINGHAM —Not even the biggest blizzard could keep Paul Saletnik from delivering mail on Dennison Avenue.
As the snow piled up one morning a couple of years ago, Saletnik was knocking at the door of his neighbor, friend and colleague Bill Lynch at 7 a.m., greeting him with a convincing, “Come on, we’re walking.”
Saletnik loved being a letter carrier, and served as a neighborhood fixture while dutifully walking his route for 35 years. He died of cancer last Saturday at age 66, just months after retiring.
During an impressive funeral procession Thursday, Saletnik’s fellow workers proved how much he meant to them and the U.S. Postal Service. Scores of Framingham mail carriers escorted the hearse carrying the Air Force veteran’s flag-draped casket from St. Stephen’s Church to the Edgell Grove Cemetery.
In their uniforms of shorts and shirts, post office employees formed a sea of blue at Saletnik’s graveside, where they joined his family in saying a final goodbye to “a good dude.”