The freedom of movement most people take for granted is gone from Lisa Klemin’s everyday life. The Los Alamitos resident suffers from Cerebral Palsy, and these days just getting her mail is a struggle.
The freedom of movement most people take for granted is gone from Lisa Klemin’s everyday life. The Los Alamitos resident suffers from Cerebral Palsy, and these days just getting her mail is a struggle.
Klemin has lived alone since mid-august, when her son moved out of the country. And Klemin now finds herself having to ask for considerations that she hasn’t needed before.
“I fight for every step I take now,” Klemin said.
Some of the steps she takes are to get her mail, but Klemin has been unable to make the walk to the back of her apartment building to the community box where mail for the entire building is delivered. So Klemin had a box installed next to her front door, which faces the street. But Klemin said that all her efforts over the past two months to arrange for her mail to be delivered to her new box have been disregarded by the Los Alamitos Post Office branch.
Klemin said she made repeated calls, speaking with two supervisors and the postmaster, and wrote a letter she said they told her was needed, but that no one has been out to examine her situation.
“I’m not asking for something that isn’t something that I don’t need,” Klemin said. “This should not be a big deal.”
Klemin said she was told that someone would have to go out to see her. But the post office never sent anyone, she said.
Initial messages left at the post office by the News Enterprise went unreturned. One of the supervisors that Klemin said she spoke with was reached on Oct. 31, but he referred the matter to the postmaster for the branch.
“The postmaster is the one who has to make that decision,” supervisor Oscar Cebreiro said.
A call on Monday to the number provided for the post master was not answered and no voicemail was available. A call to the line on Tuesday was answered, but the postmaster was not available. A message was left for a return call, but it was not received before press time.
For Klemin, she said that she does not have the balance to support herself with one hand on her walker, while unlocking the mail box with the other hand. She said she has resorted to kneeling while unlocking the box, to avoid falling. She said she feels like she has gotten little, to no consideration from the post office about trying to arrange a better system for her, and no answers as to why her requests have not been addressed.
