Åsa Ottosson Position at PostNord: Mail carrier in Sundsvall, Sweden. Closest colleagues: “My husband Anders Ottosson: he is also a mail carrier. That’s how we met. I was renting a small apartment and sitting outside studying when he arrived with the mail. We started talking. Turns out we both like to walk in the woods and that was how it started. Ulf Wiik: likes mountain hiking, nice style, good taste. Jörgen Johansson: cool car, cool guy. Roger Gröning: still going strong. Micke Holm: battles on, has a cigarette.”
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A LOT HAPPENS in a neighborhood in 20 years. Some houses are demolished and others built. People are born, grow up and move away. But there is also a lot that remains. Like mail carrier Åsa Ottosson, who has been delivering mail in the same district in Sundsvall for two decades and has inevitably got to know the local residents. If a neighborhood can have a heart, she is one of those who supply it with oxygen. “It’s a highly social job”, she says. “Sometimes I wish I had more time, but it doesn’t take long to stop and exchange a few words. It can mean so much to people, some say it’s the best time of day when I come.” IN EARLY SPRING 2021 Åsa distributed mail as usual in Södermalm in Sundsvall. But due to the pandemic, the neighborhood's heart beat a little weaker that day. On the letters to the elderly woman who Åsa used to chat with, it said “estate”. A neighbor said that she had died of COVID-19. A sad Åsa was also told that two of the woman’s four cats would be put down in two weeks’ time. No new home had been found for them. “I have six cats myself and thought it was abolutely awful, both for the poor cats Hasse and Gösta, but also for the deceased lady who had been a real animal lover and a dog sitter for several dogs”, Åsa says. “It felt so wrong.” THEN SHE HAD an idea. The same neighborhood was home to a man whose cat had been missing for several months. He had told Åsa about his grief. She phoned him and told him about the two suddenly homeless cats. “I said, you don’t have to decide right away but he did!” says Åsa. “Just a few days later, the cats moved in with him. He is elderly and did not want a new kitten.” ÅSA REALLY EMPATHIZED with the man and his missing cat. One winter, one of her
PEOPLE BY POSTNORD
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