AUBURN — Alyson Thompson is a mail carrier who knows her route inside and out.

She knows the people who live there, she knows their routines, she knows which dogs are friendly and which ones are not.

That attention to detail came in handy last week for an older fellow who collapsed on the ground outside his Goff Street home. On June 22, Thompson was inspecting her mail outside the home when she made the unsettling find near the corner of the house.

“I just saw his foot,” she said.

That foot belonged to a 90-year-old man to whom Thompson has been delivering mail for nearly two years.

“He calls me his girlfriend,” Thompson said.

But not that day. The elderly man was in obvious distress and could not get up on his own. Thompson called for help at once and then waited for rescue crews to arrive. After that, she stuck around a bit longer — the older fellow was disoriented, she said, and Thompson wanted to stay with him until a family member arrived.

That’s hero behavior in just about anyone’s book, but Thompson shrugs it off. Just part of doing the job, she says. When you deliver mail to the same houses day after day, you become an unofficial guardian. You recognize when all is well, and you recognize when all is not.

“The people in these neighborhoods, they become like family,” Thompson said. “If there’s even the slightest thing that’s out of place, it catches your eye.”

Or your ear, as it turns out.

Thompson, who comes from a long line of postal employees, spent the bulk of her time walking a route in Boothbay Harbor. After moving to the Twin Cities, things got interesting fast. She remembers one cold winter morning when she was walking her route in New Auburn. She had just dropped some mail into a box and was headed for the next house.

“I heard a little voice say ‘thank you,'” Thompson said. “I turned around and this little boy, maybe two-years-old, was standing there in just a diaper. He was just out there by himself. Luckily, he was still in the driveway. I pounded on the door and got his mother.”

Then there are the old folks on her route who don’t need help, necessarily, but just a little looking after.

And a little bit of company never hurts.

Thompson recalls a 104-year-old woman on her route back in Boothbay Harbor who was unable to walk.

“We went inside her house every day and handed her her mail,” Thompson said. “Even though the police checked on her every day, we were the only people she saw.”

The 90-year-old man Thompson helped last week is back in the hospital being treated for his affliction. Thompson said she keeps tabs on him as much as she can. On the day when Thompson discovered him on the ground, the man was fully aware of who had come to his aid.

“He told me that he still loves me,” Thompson recalls.

She has a soft spot for the elderly, no question about it.

“You’ve got to love them,” Thompson said. “They’re just so lovable.”

It’s a good bet that the feeling is mutual.

Thompson doesn’t seem to like it when someone suggests that her actions were heroic — “just doing my job” is her mantra on the subject — but her colleagues were more than happy to deliver the praise.

“We’re proud to have employees like Alyson representing the Postal Service,” Postmaster Leigh St. Pierre said, “and looking after our customers’ best interests.”