People in Church Hill yesterday said goodbye to their post office after more than 150 years of service.
Villagers will now have to travel for up to 8 kilometres for their postal service after local post mistress Tillie Wilkin accepted the An Post voluntary retirement package.
Ms Wilkin, who has been the post mistress for the past 23 years, closed the door on the premises for the last time at 4pm.
It was an emotional time for the grandmother of eleven as she was joined by family and friends for tea and cake to mark her final day.
Tillie, whose husband Bobby died seven years ago, is now hoping to travel and to spend some more time with her grandkids.
She said her proudest moment came in 2001 and she was named as the North-West’s Postmaster of the Year.
However, Tillie said she will mostly miss all the customers that come to see her in her post office on a daily basis.
“I find it difficult to talk about it but I know that I will not miss it until I close the door and it actually sinks in.
“This has been my life for the past 23 years and all of a sudden I will not be opening the post office come Monday morning. I think that’s when it will sink in,” she said.
Tillie’s son Victor and daughter Elaine had helped their mum run the branch for the past number of years but under An Post regulations, were prevented from taking over the branch.
And so ends the Wilkin family connection with the local postal services which stretches back to the 1830s when it first started in the village.
Daughter Elaine is very disappointed by the closure of the post office, one of some 160 branches to be closed across the country under the scheme between now and next January.
She says she has no doubt that the village will be a lot poorer as the signatory green post office sign is taken from above the white-washed gable wall of the building.
She said “I honestly would have to question if the people in An Post have any elderly relatives living in rural Ireland.
“If they did they would realise what impact these closures are going to have on the elderly people who use them each week.
“I appreciate that they want a more automated service and they want pensions and children’s allowance paid directly into bank accounts but the reality is that many of our elderly people don’t have bank accounts let alone bank cards.
“On top of that, we might be the only people that many elderly people see each week and that social aspect is going to die when these post offices close.”
Post Mistress Tillie Wilkin who has been looking after the requirements of the locals in Church Hill for voer 23 yrs and who’s closing the doors this Friday. (North West Newspix)
