Paper delivery guy can't make it to work, manager fills in, saves woman's life

Ben Morris didn't expect to deliver newspapers last Friday morning. But that was just one of the many surprises in his day, not the least of which was saving a woman's life.

Morris is the circulation district manager for the Casper Star Tribune in Wyoming. And last Friday was a very snowy day, so much so that one of his carriers couldn't make it in. So at 4am, Morris took it upon himself to deliver the papers on that particular route.

On a whim, Morris decided to reverse direction.

"There are ninety customers on that route, and like most carriers I'd done it before and have a certain pattern that I take that I think is most efficient, [and] serves the customers best. But, because I had time well before the paper delivery deadline, I thought why don't I just run it backwards and see how it feels," explains Morris.

Morris wasn't long into his route before he noticed something was out of the ordinary. Something on a customer's front porch that wasn't normally there.

"It didn't take but two or three steps to notice there was, um, a human body."

Edith Brekken, 77, had fallen face-down on her porch and was not moving. She was dressed in pyjamas, with no socks or shoes on a freezing cold morning.

"I reached around to her neck to feel for a pulse, and I could not feel one. And then I leaned very close to her face ... my glasses fogged up a little bit."

Morris took that as a sign that Brekken was still breathing. He called 911, and then he noticed that the door to her house was cracked open. He went inside and called out, but no one else was in the house, so he stripped a pillow and blankets off her bed and placed them around Brekken.

Paramedics arrived within five to six minutes, and they informed Morris that the woman was hypothermic. It was later learned she was outside for more than two hours.

Morris later learned that had he not reversed the paper route Brekken may not have survived.

Brekken's daughter calls Morris a "guardian angel." Morris was modest in response.

"I was at the right place at the right time."