Sparta Postman James Taylor (above) is known as an "angel" to the Busic family. Taylor helped call 911 for Patyrae Busic after she had a stroke as he delivered a package to her door on Dec. 27, 2006. In the photo at left, Ms. Busic greets Taylor during a recent visit to her Sparta home.

Postman honored as a hero by Sparta family

When Sparta postman James Taylor went on his route Dec. 27, 2006, it was just like every other day. He typically puts mail in mailboxes and hand-delivers packages that do not fit into the mailbox-and sometimes just as an act of kindness for elderly residents.

Little did he know when he agreed to run two routes that day that he would end the day being referred to as a "hero" to a family and an "angel" to Patyrae Busic of Sparta.

Taylor, a Laurel Springs resident who has been delivering mail for the last 12 years, stated that he had never had an incident occur like he encountered at Busic's home just after Christmas.

"She got a package," Taylor remembers. "It might have gone in her box. I don't know why, but I just took it to the house. I went to her house and knocked on her door or rang the doorbell."

Taylor went on to say he recalled Busic sitting at the kitchen table in her home when he arrived and that she had difficulty opening the door.

"Finally, she got it open and she staggered and fell into the door and the next thing I know…she fell on top of me," he stated. "I kind of broke her fall, picked her up and got her inside her door. I was going to put her in the chair at the eating table, but I could not pick her up. That bothers me till this day. I wanted so bad to put her in that chair. Her sister was in there with her. She came over there and we both tried to pick her up and both of us couldn't."

Busic was then transported to Alleghany Memorial Hospital and then transferred to Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, where she was treated for a stroke.

Taylor noted he then asked Busic's visiting sister, Wanda Wills, to call 9-1-1.

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