By Kristina Michel
Every day, Lucy Pinal and her fellow mail carriers at the University of Houston Postal Services department drop off hundreds of letters, packages and copies of The Daily Cougar to faculty, staff and students across campus. It’s a job she’s done for 12 years and one she is immensely proud of.
“What I like about this department is the experiences that I have and the service that we give to the students, faculty and staff,” said Pinal. “I have met a lot of good people. I’ve watched the campus grow so much, and I believe we’re growing with it.”
Pinal was born in Mexico and raised in Chicago. She and her family moved to Houston from Chicago back in 2000. In Chicago, she worked in electronics at Panasonic. In fact, Panasonic was where Pinal originally met her husband.
“For 24 years, we worked for the same company,” Pinal said. “I met him there, we got married there and we raised a family together.”
After Panasonic relocated its Chicago office out of the country, Pinal and her husband decided to move to Houston, seeking work and warmer temperatures. Her husband joined UH first as an HVAC technician. He has since been promoted to supervisor. Pinal acquired a job as a mail carrier in UH Postal Services.
Pinal has become a friendly face for many different departments on campus. She enjoys the fact that her mail routes change regularly because it allows her to see a new set of friends with each change.
“They rotate us every week, so every week, I get to see a different set of friends,” said Pinal. “When they see me, they call me by my first name. I feel like everybody knows me. I take a lot of pride in my job.”
And Pinal takes just as much pride in her role as a mother. She and her husband have two children who are both college graduates. Their son, an entrepreneur, owns a bakery in Chicago, and their daughter, a UH graduate, is a bilingual teacher. Both have their own children, and Pinal and her husband visit them as often as they can.
“I’m happy that our children have been so successful. I’m a blessed mama,” said Pinal.
When she’s not working, Pinal enjoys tending her garden, where she grows lemons, figs, peaches and guavas. She and her husband also like to travel. They have family in Mexico, whom they visit frequently. They also travel back and forth to Chicago to see their son and grandson. Pinal says that when she finally retires, she wants to travel all over Europe.