Hero postman rescues Mother’s Day by delivering gifts and cards to shocked mums on day off

A postman has made a name for himself after his friend posted on Facebook about his hard work on Mother’s Day.

Unbeknown to him at the time, while he simply thought he was doing a good deed of the day, Daley Lawrence has highlighted the hard work of the Royal Mail, by ensuring all mothers got their flowers, gifts, and cards on time yesterday.

Mr Lawrence, who has worked for the Royal Mail for one year after a lockdown career change, was on his day off when he had to nip into his depot in Patchway to deliver some keys to a colleague.

Once there, he realised that there were still a lot of flowers left to make it out for Mother’s Day and he didn’t want his colleague to have to work late, so he set about delivering them himself to make sure no one was left disappointed.

When asked how it all unfolded, Mr Lawrence told BristolWorld how he had just finished up on his usual Sunday routine volunteering at a charity when he popped via Patchway to drop off the keys. “When I walked in, I noticed there were quite a lot of flowers that hadn’t gone out yet and that person had been on since seven in the morning,” he explains.

“I had nothing planned for the evening so I just thought, I’ll get these flowers out. Our latest drop-off time is 10pm so I decided to get a move on.”

Mr Lawrence did four hours and around 50 deliveries, from about 6pm before dropping off the last flowers at 9.30pm to a mum in Patchway.

“She was very surprised! She said ‘Ooo, I didn’t know you worked this late’,” said Mr Lawrence. “And I said, well it’s Mother’s Day and we just had to get these flowers to you! Pretty much everyone commented on not usually getting deliveries on a Sunday. Sunday deliveries are quite new to Royal Mail.”

Realising what was going on and how much Mr Lawrence was sacrificing his day off, his friend Angela Morey posted on Facebook to show off the good deed and the people of Bristol started sharing their gratitude.

“I didn’t realise that my friend had done the post,” said Mr Lawrence. “She had sent me a picture outside the kebab van that I usually go to on a Sunday evening asking where I was. When I explained the situation, she was touched being a mother of five herself, but I didn’t see it till I got home.

“It was so touching to me that people in my community really value what we do.”

It’s perhaps not surprising that Mr Lawrence opted to do this on his day off, as he says that the people are his favourite part of being a postman. “I love meeting all the different people and the happy people on the doorstep really make the job,” he said.

But what really drove him to do it? “Just knowing that so many people had sent their mother’s flowers,” he said.

“There were some cards involved as well and I wanted to make sure they got their deliveries as soon as possible and that they didn’t think they were forgotten by their kids. Obviously, they were going to be delivered at some point, but I wanted to make sure it was as soon as possible.”

Mr Lawrence said how lovely it was to see the surprised and smiley reactions. “I had a few very surprised, but very happy, people,” he said. “It was 90% flowers and gifts, so there were a lot of mothers not really expecting anything. To be greeted with flowers late on in the day was quite a surprise for them.”

So, how did it feel to become a hero postie overnight? “It’s a bit overwhelming, I don’t feel like a hero but it’s really nice to know that I made people’s day. It’s nice to know that I’m thought of like that and that all posties are.”

Clearly incredibly modest, after a tough couple of years for the Royal Mail throughout Covid-19, Mr Lawrence is proud to showcase and put a good name to the hard work of the Royal Mail as a company. “We get out there, we do it, and we do try our best,” he says.

“We don’t want to fail, and we just want to succeed in getting as many parcels to as many people.”