It’s not too often that a husband and wife retire on the same day from the same place at the same time.

Chris and Lori Hebert retired from the Deep River Post Office on Sept. 29 after completing a combined 71 years of service for the U.S. Postal Service. Chris, 67, spent 38 years as a mail carrier and Lori, 59, spent 33 years as the post office clerk.

The Heberts, both previously married, were wed after meeting during work at the Deep River Post Office—they have been married 22 years.

To their colleagues the Post Office, Chris and Lori have become an institution.

“Chris is the model carrier,” said Deep River Postmaster Dave Saraceno. “I was a carrier when I started and I wanted to be like him and Lori has been the one to keep me straight up here [in the office].”

Lori Hebert said that leaving Deep River Post Office will be hard. The best part of her job (apart from meeting her husband, of course) has been the people.

“All the friends, the people I work with, that makes it so hard to leave,” Lori Hebert said. “You make a lot of friends here that you see everyday.”

Chris Hebert agreed that working with people has been the best part of his job, too.

“They’re wonderful,” he said, “There really are wonderful people in this town.”

Saraceno said that the couple will be missed by all of Deep River.

“It’s fantastic, they’re like family,” Saraceno said. “They’re on both sides: One is at the counter and one is on the road, so I get the whole shebang with the two of them.”

Lori Hebert said that she and Chris are proud to have been postal employees.

“This was a great job, I have no complaints about it,” she said.

In retirement, the couple plans on taking a trip to Colorado to see her son and grandson—she said she thinks that they will probably travel and relax more afterwards; he saids he’d like to “just stop and smell the roses a little bit.”

The idea of being retired though, still seems a bit surreal.

“It’s pretty nuts,” Chris Hebert said. “It just went by so fast and it seems to get faster everyday…but I don’t know, we’re just very lucky and I’m happy about it.”