No mailboxes at JFK

On our way to Africa on Sept. 24, ’05, and with a long layover at New York’s JFK, I tried to find a mailbox in the airport to mail some bills that would come due while we were gone. Lo and behold, I found out that all of the mailboxes had been removed after 9/11.

When I asked the woman working at the Red Carpet room there about it, she said that they had all been removed because of anthrax! After doing a double take, I sweetly asked her if by any chance she would mind mailing my bills for me on her way home, as we were going to Johannesburg.

“Oh, no,” she said. “We are forbidden to do that because of anthrax.”

I went and sat down and tried to figure out what to do. Both bills would be due before our return. I spotted a young woman in the waiting room and asked her where she was going. “Phoenix,” she said. I asked her if she would mind mailing two bill payments for me and she said, “Of course. I’ll just put them with mine when I get there.”

Needless to say, I thanked her profusely for saving the day for me. By the way, both payments were paid on time.

Bottom line — you can’t mail anything at JFK. And sometimes you have to trust strangers.

DOROTHY MORRIS, Honolulu, HI