CHINO HILLS, CA — On the wall of Denise Melling’s office hangs a photograph that is almost 53 years old. It’s a picture that tells a story — maybe even predicted a future. And it is one of the Chino Hills Post Office customer service supervisor’s most treasured possessions in the world. “Every time I look at it,” said Melling, “it is a reminder of unconditional love.”

The black and white photo shows a ruggedly handsome young man in a postal uniform on a bicycle. In the basket of the bike, sitting on a pile of mail, is a beaming little girl. The man is Robert Melling, at the time a letter carrier for the old U.S. Post Office Department, which was, back in October 1957, experimenting with the concept of delivering mail on bicycles. (Today, in Arizona and Florida, the U.S. Postal Service is still exploring bicycle delivery as an eco-friendly transportation alternative.)

Robert Melling’s home was on his Azusa mail route and he would stop there for lunch. One day he placed his tiny tow-headed daughter, Denise, in the basket. Although Melling was also a professional photographer at the time, it was his wife, Beverly, who snapped the classic father/daughter picture in the driveway of their home.

Fast forward to 1978. Denise Melling was grown with a child of her own and looking for a good job. Like her father, who started his postal career in 1948 earning 65 cents an hour sorting mail on a moving train out of the Buffalo, NY, Railway Terminal, she turned to the Postal Service. She landed a job at the Industry Processing and Distribution Center and after a year or so transferred to a letter carrier job in — you guessed it — Asuza.

For two years Melling and her father were delivery coworkers. “I treasure the times that my father and I worked together,” she reflected. For his part, Robert Melling was proud to have his daughter join him. “The Post Office had always provided for my family, and I always loved my job, my customers and being outside most of the day,” said the elder Melling. “Denise was a single parent, so I knew that the benefits the Postal Service offered would provide for them.”

Denise Melling rented a home in Asuza, and although her parents had relocated to West Covina many years before, she discovered to her surprise that the driveway where the photo of her and her dad had been taken so long ago was right across the street from where she was now living.

She entered management and was promoted to a supervisor position in Glendora, leaving the Azusa Post Office on Feb. 3, 1984. Remarkably, that was exactly the same day her father left the building to begin his retirement.

Perhaps it was fate. Perhaps coincidence. But when you know the story, you can see why the old photo means so much to Denise Melling. It symbolizes the fact that among the family ties and bonds of love that connect father to daughter, there is also a thread that runs through the U.S. Postal Service.

Note: The photo referenced in this story is available to media by emailing richard.j.maher@usps.gov.

# # #

Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/welcome.htm.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no direct support from taxpayers. With 36,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, the Postal Service relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $68 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 28th in the 2009 Fortune 500.