The loss of a woman who died trying to save lives in a fire at a senior facility in Fayette has touched entire neighborhoods in Columbia where she was beloved as their mail carrier.
On Jan. 27, three people died after two of them became trapped in the fire at the Perkins Home Residential Care Center. Marcia Lyon, a weekend employee there, rushed into the building to help and also didn’t survive.
“This loss has been devastating, not only for our family, but for the other families, too,” her daughter, Shauna, said. “We wake up, and it’s like Groundhog Day over and over again. It’s a bad dream you cannot come out of.”
It hit the Thornbrook neighborhood in south Columbia especially hard, where Lyon became friends with families on her route and took extra care to deliver their mail. Those along Lyon’s postal route say her kindness and involvement made her a familiar, trusted presence in the neighborhood.
The day after she died, a stream of neighbors began tying purple ribbons on their mailboxes as a tribute to Lyon.
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