Jean Blair was still helping in the community at the age of 83, offering advice and running errands for neighbours.
After more than 50 years as a post office clerk and later postmistress, Mrs Blair never stopped serving the community.
She died
after suffering a heart attack while she collected pensions for neighbours at the Niddrie post office, which she ran for several years.
The second of six children, Mrs Blair was brought up by her mother, Sophia, in Duddingston Village while her father, George Dalziel Balfour, worked at Deuchars and Co. Brewery.
She attended Duddingston Primary School, then Portobello High School, along with brothers John, Matthew and George and sisters Ella and Sadie.
During the Second World War she met Alan Blair, from Cannonmills, and on his return from armed service in Burma the couple married at Bristo Memorial Church in 1948.
Mr Blair went to work as a miner at Jewel pits and the couple moved to Jewel Cottages.
Their first daughter, Moira, was born on November 10 – their wedding anniversary.
Mrs Blair worked at Craigmillar Post Office and when the couple's second child, Elaine, was born the dedicated postmistress only took two weeks of maternity leave.
After turning down a job at Post Office headquarters at Waterloo Place, Mrs Blair became postmistress at Hay Drive Post Office, Niddrie.
Her daughter, Moira McKenzie, said: "She turned the job (at Waterloo Place] down to stay in the community.
"If she saw someone in a bit of hardship she would help them.
"When we used to do the grocery shopping it used to take an hour longer than it should because everybody knew her and would come and talk to her."
In her 83 years, Mrs Blair never travelled abroad, but enjoyed taking holidays closer to home in Dornoch and Kenmore with her sister Ella.
Three months after her husband died in 1991, Mrs Blair suffered a serious heart attack and had to take time off from the job she loved in the post office.
Mrs McKenzie said: "We thought she would give up work but it wasn't to be.
"They asked her to come back to work at Hay Drive so that was what she did."
Mrs Blair retired in 2002 at the age of 77 – after serving behind a post office counter for over 50 years – and spent a lot of time with her three grandchildren, Carron, Greg and Cameron, and great grandchildren Blair, Kensie and Olivia.
She also continued to offer advice to neighbours and former customers on issues such as finance, pensions and post office services.
Mrs McKenzie added: "She would nip down and get pensions for neighbours who couldn't get about so much – she was a very kind person.
"She died very suddenly on July 7 in the community where she had worked for so many years.
"It was a great comfort to my sister and I that there were friends with her."
The full article contains 516 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
