Through rain, snow, sleet and hail – Jackie Flowers has delivered the mail.

Flowers has been on the local roads delivering mail to his Rural Route mail patrons for the past 33 years, but on Tuesday morning of this week, Flowers drove his Route 4 path for the final time before entering into his retirement years.

Flowers began his career as a substitute mail carrier for Route 3 in 1978, and then became a full-time carrier on Route 4, where he has been delivering for the past 20 years.

A highly visible volunteer for a host of civic groups in and around Albany and Clinton County, Flowers will spend his retirement time farming and putting in even more volunteer work for this community he loves.

Flowers’ wife, Phyllis, told the Clinton County News that her husband had been blessed in the past 33 years in that she knew he left for work every morning looking forward to working his mail route. “I have never, ever heard him say in the past 33 years that he didn’t want to go to work that morning – how blessed can you be to love your job for that long?”

Flowers, shown above as he appeared on his route normally, left the Albany Post Office Tuesday morning to find his co-workers and friends had made sure his final day on the route would be one that was well recognized with a very highly visible delivery vehicle.