By CHRIS COLLINSccollins@bakercityherald.comLynne Loverin doesn’t like to think about what might have happened to her 85-year-old mother if she’d spent another chilly night lying on the linoleum floor of her Hereford home.

That’s where Shauna Andrews found Marilyn Loverin on the afternoon of Sept. 15.

Whether Marilyn lay there alone for one night or two, no one can say for sure. But thanks to Andrews’ concern for her neighbor, Marilyn is on her way to recovery.

Andrews was honored Monday on the floor of the U.S. Senate for what Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) called “her exceptional service and dedication to her customers and neighbors.”

Andrews, 49, is the Hereford postmaster. She has worked at the post office, which is attached to her home at Hereford, for the past seven years and has served as postmaster for four years.

Wyden called Andrews’ Hereford home last month to thank her for her concern for Marilyn Loverin.

And although she’s a Republican, Andrews said she has gained new respect for the senator and the work he’s done on behalf of his Eastern Oregon constituents.

She especially appreciates his interest in keeping the doors of rural post offices open and preserving jobs at Ash Grove Cement, where her husband, Corey, works. And she is impressed that the senator would take the time to give her a call.

“I think he definitely shows he’s working on our behalf,” Andrews said.

Hereford is one of four Baker County post offices on a U.S. Postal Service “closure study list.” The others are at Unity, Durkee and Oxbow.

The Andrewses have lived in their home, which has a separate entrance for the post office, since 1987. Their four children, Tanna, Tara, Torie and Caleb, grew up there.

The house had been owned by Shauna’s great-aunt, Kate Engle. The post office was moved to its current site in 1936 and Engle was named postmaster at that time, according to the book “Lest We Forget, Remembrances of Upper Burnt River in Baker County Oregon.” Andrews said her great-aunt served as Hereford postmaster for more than 30 years.

The post office, which has 43 boxes serving about 100 people, is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

On most weekdays, Marilyn Loverin could be expected to drive to the post office to pick up her mail anytime between 10 and 11:30.

“She didn’t need to,” Andrews said. “She has a box on the route, but she enjoyed getting out.”

Loverin arrived as usual on Tuesday, Sept. 13. When she didn’t show up on Wednesday, Andrews thought perhaps something had come up that had prevented her from making her usual rounds.

But by Thursday, when Loverin again failed to come in to pick up her mail, Andrews became concerned.

She asked letter carrier Bill Immoos to take note of whether Loverin had picked up her Wednesday mail, and to give her a call from Unity to let her know what he’d found. Immoos travels from John Day to Hereford and on to Unity before returning to John Day to deliver and pick up mail.

Immoos notified Andrews that Loverin had not picked up her mail. The postmaster then tried to reach Loverin’s daughter in Baker City. Andrews and Lynne Loverin attended Burnt River High School at Unity together; Andrews was a member of the Class of 1980 and Lynne Loverin graduated a year later.

When her attempts to contact family members were unsuccessful, Andrews tried to call Marilyn Loverin at her home, but there was no answer. That’s when Andrews decided she needed to drive the three miles to Loverin’s home.

“For my own piece of mind I needed to go check on her,” she said.Andrews took along her 19-year-old son, Caleb, and his friend, Tanner Schnetz, who was visiting for a few days.

“I knocked on the door and there was no answer,” she said. “I knocked again and no answer.”

She checked the door and found that it was unlocked, so she opened it and called out for Loverin.

“I heard a faint ‘yeah,’ ” Andrews said, adding that she immediately signaled for the young men, who had waited in her vehicle, to join her in Loverin’s double-wide mobile home.

Loverin, who had had a stroke, was responsive and had not broken any bones, said Andrews, who is also trained as an emergency first responder.

“When I thought she was OK, I sat her up and had my son sit behind her so she could lean on him,” she said. “Then I called 911 and requested an ambulance.”

The Baker City ambulance, traveling the 38 miles over the narrow and winding Dooley Mountain route to Loverin’s home on Highway 245, arrived about an hour later.

While they waited, Andrews gave Loverin a glass of water and covered her with a blanket to help warm her after her night on the floor.

The weather had begun to cool by mid-September and Loverin’s windows were open overnight, sending a breeze through her home, her daughter said.

“If it wasn’t due to the post office, my mom probably wouldn’t have made it another evening,” Lynne said. “Shauna kept tabs on her.”

Marilyn Loverin has lived alone at Hereford since the death of her husband, Wes, in 2002. The house they had lived in together was destroyed by fire in 2003, and Marilyn underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 2004, Lynne said.

But her mother has been determined to remain in the Burnt River country where the Loverins and their four children moved in April 1978.

“She’s very strong-willed and stubborn,” said Lynne, who shares her time between homes in Baker City and Hereford.

Marilyn’s two sons, Rod and Lee, live in California and her other daughter, Beverly, is in Tennessee.

The stroke left Loverin with some paralysis on her left side, but she’s making progress at the Elks Rehabilitation Center in Boise, Lynne said Tuesday. Marilyn was able to walk 20 feet on Monday.

Mark Bennett, Baker County Emergency Management director, said he learned about Andrews’ life-saving efforts in his role as the Unity city manager.

He passed the story on to Kathleen Cathey, who works in Wyden’s Eastern Oregon office in La Grande, during discussions about the need to retain small rural post offices.

Tom Towslee, Wyden’s state communications director, said from his Salem office Tuesday that Wyden was happy to acknowledge Andrews in the Congressional Record.

“It’s an excellent way to recognize people who do things of the magnitude that Shauna Andrews did,” Towslee said. “And it shows the importance of the role these rural post offices play. This is about more than just the mail.”

In recognizing Andrews, Wyden noted that her story is just one example of the need to retain small post offices in rural communities.

“The decision to close post offices should not be taken lightly and we should ensure that our most remote communities do not become further isolated,” Wyden said.

Andrews said her family is proud of her, but she’s still a little overwhelmed by all of the attention.

“It is an honor,” she said, “But I don’t feel like I did anything special. I am a friend and neighbor who went to check on a friend and neighbor.”