Today Judy Duchemin will lift her last mailbag and smile at her last customer.

Post Office Contract Station No. 1, which has been serving Old Town Silverdale for the past 13 years will close its counter 2 p.m.

“It was time for a change, something that won’t involve lifting mailbags,” Duchemin said Thursday morning.

For the past eight years it’s been located among the scented candles, figurines and decorative touches of McGregor & Company, Duchemin said she couldn’t ask for a better location than Old Town.

“It’s the perfect place for a post office ... This end of town is brimming with people,” she said.

It’s the people, she and post office employee Stephanie Rockford, will miss the most.

“It’s been fun. I’m going to miss it,” Rockford said Wednesday morning in between issuing stamps and weighing packages.

Duchemin’s family is one of the pioneering families of the area and working at the post office has tightened those ties. She was born and raised in Bremerton, where she still lives.

“I’ve found cousins I didn’t know I had,” she said.

The post office, which began in an antique store in Old Town, has brought in a steady stream of potential customers for McGregor’s, said owner Sammy Knox. The store, which specializes in country gifts and antiques, will not be closing.

A contract for the Old Town post office station is expected to go out to bid by the end of the month, Silverdale Post Office officials said. Postal services should resume at the end of October.

Meanwhile, Knox will extend her showroom to fill the vacancy.

The post office started small and has increased in popularity

“It’s grown larger than I want to handle,” Duchemin said. She’s not the type to sit at home and work in her garden.

“The word retirement is not in my vocabulary,” she said with a laugh.

She’s had several careers including working as a summer camp cook for 14 years. She has not made final plans for what is next.

“I’ve had fun with everything I’ve done,” she said. It’s fun to look forward and see what’s around the corner.”

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