Hello Brothers and Sisters,

I am writing to you all about one of our own; Rich Barbarita. Over the last few years, Rich has experienced a lot of setbacks that have brought him down to a really low place in life. Rich is a very private person, as you all know; he reached out to me because he didn't know what else to do and he is stuck in a not-so-pleasant place in his life.

Over the last 3 years, he has been taking care of his mother who had been suffering from dementia. If he wasn't slinging mail, he was making sure his mom was taken care of. He always made light of the situation when we would talk in the mornings, but I could tell he was stressed out.

Rich was late one day and he was saying that his mom wanted some cereal (Cap'n Crunch) before he left for work. Rich realized that she had eaten up the cereal the day before, so he went to the store quickly to get more and bring it back to her so she was happy for the day. Rich then said to me, "She eats a lot of cereal, think I'm gonna start calling her the Cereal Killer." We both laughed; Rich knows funny. Unfortunately, Rich's mom, Josephine Palma Barbarita, age 88, passed on March 6th.

Over those three years, Rich lost his father, Michael, two older brothers, Dominic and Ronald, and then to top it off, Rich's wife of 34 years left him a week before his mom died.

Finally, Richie has been out of work with a back injury since last May 2025. Workman's comp has disapproved his case twice and he is awaiting an appeal for the final decision in the coming months. He has not gotten paid since July and has a long road ahead of him to recover from his injuries and finances. Realistically, he won't be coming back to work anytime soon, if ever again, as it's difficult for him to maneuver the simplest tasks without severe discomfort to his lower back.

We have all thought about these scenarios over the years and hope that this stuff doesn't happen to us. It does happen; sometimes things happen at the worst of times to some really good people that don't deserve the lows of feeling down-and-out.

Wanted to start this fund for Rich because he's one of our brothers who is humble in life and doesn't ask for anything from anyone. He just doesn't want to be a hassle or be a bother; instead, he fields the weight on his own shoulders. Whenever there was a card passed around at work, he never hesitated to give what he could. He brought in donuts on his day off on the regular as well as told some hilarious jokes while we all were casing mail. Those were some good times. Some of the best of times and fun memories made. Not asking for any miracles on this, but I figured whatever we can do will help Richie at least a little bit.

Jimmy Mapes