If you’re sending a card to Delia Quigley in Derrylester Post Office to mark her retirement, fear not, she is still there for you to call in and wish her well.

The popular postmistress will be in place until Tuesday, June 25, a tireless servant to Killesher and the surrounding area who she has served for 39 years in her role. Upon her retirement, the Post Office will close.

She pulled the window of her parcel hatch open and leaned out to catch up with this newspaper.

Referencing the size of the roadside Post Office attached to a small bungalow, Mrs. Quigley commented: “You wouldn’t swing a cat in here!”

The Post Office began in the hands of the Crozier family and later was taken over by Alfie and Elizabeth Farlow, whose photos are also displayed on the wall.

Times have changed, when Mrs. Quigley first started in 1985, a stamp was 17p. Now, a first-class stamp costs £1.25.

in 1994, Derrylester was named the Best Post Office in Northern Ireland 1994, something Mrs. Quigley remembers proudly with the certificate still displayed.

She recalled some hysterical tales of some of the antics in the Post Office: “Jeremy Crozier was farming and dipping sheep, there were tenants in the house, and they had a dog that had got out, this ram got away on Jeremy.

"I had this door locked and the back door locked and heard this”, Knocking the door, she continues: “A lady was here and I said, ‘Hold on a wee second till I see what is going on’, and opening the door like that and this ram came tearing in past me. It was wringing wet and it got in between the counter and my desk.

“I was afraid of my life, I found Jeremy and he said: ‘Have you anything belonging to me, Delia?’ and I said: ‘Yes, get it out as quick as you can’ and he told me to put a first-class stamp on it and it will go on.”

Mrs. Quigley remembered happy times including organising special birthday parties for one of the area’s most distinguished former residents, Mrs. Margaret Rankin, who was believed to be the oldest woman in Ireland at the time of her death: “I used to have parties here for Mrs. Rankin from she was 105 till she was almost 110. I was preparing for her 110th birthday and she died a month before her 110th."

She will miss how news filtered into the Post Office, both happy and said: “I will miss the company terribly and the latest news on the agenda for the week.”

She looks forward to her retirement to spend time with her husband, Brendan, children Aaron and Dervla and her “three beautiful grandchildren, Edel, Erin and Oísin.”

 Other plans include looking after her health.

Concluding, with a wide smile and laugh: “That’s the life of Derrylester and me!”