COLUMBUS (Dawn Faugl) — After more than half a century, a tireless postal worker is finally ready to take a break and retire.

Moses Jamison has worked with the US Postal Service in Columbus for 58 years. Jamison says in that time, he’s seen just about anything you can imagine being shipped.

His coworkers at the Columbus Processing and Distribution Plant near the airport call him Mr. Post Office.

In those 58 years of work, Jamison has never even taken a sick day. The president of the mail handlers union says Jamison has over 5,000 hours of sick leave earned over his career. “You feel bad and everything, but you’re taught and raised ‘still got to work, still got to eat,'” Jamison said.

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COLUMBUS, OH – On October 6, 1956, Moses Jamison clocked in for his first day with the United States Postal Service. His job – mail handler – was hefting, loading and emptying full sacks of mail, magazines and parcels that arrived in Columbus by truck, tractor trailer, and railroad freight car.

“It was heavy work,” said Jaimson. “In the 50’s and early 60’s I worked at the train station and at a facility we all called the truck terminal. The terminal was a large outdoor concrete transfer dock with a roof, but no windows. In the summer I’d be sweltering in a t-shirt and hip boots, and in the winter I’d wear an Air Force flight suit to try and stay warm.”

“Everything you can imagine came through the mail back then,” continued Jamison. “I’ve seen caskets, farm equipment, tires, and even tractor pieces. By the end of the week you’d have the whole tractor come through. And chickens! We’d have trailer loads of chicks headed for different destinations. You name it, we handled it.”

Jamison is a lifelong resident of Columbus and a Class of ‘56 graduate of South High School. After graduation he landed his job with the Postal Service.

“I was 18, making $1.33 an hour, and saving money,” said Jamison. “I said to myself, ‘I’m going to stick with this job.’”

Jamison and his wife Yvonne married that year and were soon parents with two children. Then one day in 1962 their personal lives took an unforeseen turn.

“There was a story on the television about a freeway accident that left a young child orphaned,” said Jamison. “They were advertising for someone to help, so my wife called the number.”

That phone call launched the couple into a 52-year commitment to challenged children. Over the past five decades the couple has opened their home to over 200 special needs and foster care children. They adopted three of those children.

“We’ve received all kinds of training, schooling and such,” said Jamison. “For instance, we learned how to do home dialysis.”

Their selfless example inspired several family members to join the effort and open their own homes.

Now the couple will enter another chapter of life. On October 31, the 79-year-old Columbus Mail Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC) mail handler will retire from the Postal Service – the job he has stuck with for 58 years.

“I’ve never been late to work, and it’s been over 50 years since I’ve called in sick,” said Jamison. “I’m still in good health, but I always told myself that as soon as I started thinking about retirement, it would be time to go. Recently I began thinking about it, so…”

A late night celebration will be held in Jamison’s honor on October 30 at the Columbus P&DC.