Close to you
When social distancing measures meant that postmen Nigel Maycock and Andy Birch-Machin from Leek Delivery Office could no longer travel together on their rounds, they joined forces to cheer up their local community instead.
The Staffordshire pair filmed themselves singing Close to You by The Carpenters, as it seemed apt in the circumstances. Their duet was posted on Nigel’s Facebook page, where it has since been viewed more than 8,000 times.
‘When the lockdown first came into force we went into work on the Monday and everything had drastically changed from when we’d previously been there on the Saturday,’ Nigel told the Stoke Sentinel. ‘It felt like a different world.
‘We had the two-metre rule in place and went from having two to a van on our rounds to all posties now working alone. I used to see Andy quite a lot, but now that’s all changed.’
When joker Nigel sent Andy a video of himself singing the first line of Close to You, he was amazed when Andy replied with a video singing the second line.
‘We carried on back and forth sending these to each other through WhatsApp all morning,’ said Andy (pictured), who has been a postman in Leek for 20 years. ‘I got home and showed my wife and she was laughing about it. I then decided to edit it all together on my phone.
‘People seem to really enjoy the video and find it funny, which is what we were hoping for. We also included a serious message at the end to remind people to stay safe and look after one another.’
‘After posting the video we had thumbs up from people and people tapping on their windows to wave at us,’ said Nigel. ‘It was banter as friends that we didn’t record to make public. But we hope we’ve been able to lift people’s spirits.’
One woman told the pair that the video had reduced her to both tears and laughter. Andy said:
‘There was a lady I delivered a parcel to and she just started crying on her doorstep; what we're all going through isn’t nice.
‘You see people who are on their own, and sometimes it's the first contact they've had that day. You can't chat, but they knock on the window and wave - you just feel humble going around.’
