Island-style Rota-rement

It’s not unusual for postmasters to receive messages of appreciation from their customers when they retire from the U.S. Postal Service. What is unusual is that they receive such a message during an official ceremony hosted by the mayor of the community that they served.

But unusual is the usual when it comes to the career of recently retired Rota postmaster Tina Ramirez.

Rota is a 32-square-mile western Pacific Island located in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Ramirez traveled more than 7,100 miles from her Kansas City home back in 2019 to assume the role of postmaster for the island.

Upon learning of Ramirez’s plans to retire and move back to Missouri, the mayor of Rota decided to honor her with a resolution. “We thank Tina for her accomplishments and valuable contributions to our island,” said Rota Mayor Aubry Hocog. “This resolution recognizes her outstanding achievements and her 29 years of dedicated service to USPS, the last five spent as the postmaster of Rota.”

“I was extremely honored to have the island do that for me,” said Ramirez. “Words cannot express my gratitude.

“My five years as Rota postmaster was an awesome experience,” she said. “What I’m going to miss the most are the people. Rota is a community like no other. The population of 2,000 people is an extended family that helps each other, that celebrates with each other during good times and grieves with each other during the bad.

“Transitioning from Kansas City to a tropical island was surreal and a bit of a culture shock. But the community took me in and made me one of their own. I made friends here that I will keep for a lifetime. In fact, several of them adopted me, unofficially, and treat me just like family.

“My friends here taught me how to fish in the coral reefs, how to dive in the crystal-clear ocean, how to retrieve natural sea salt from the cliffs and how to navigate my way through the jungle.

“I got to live out an adventure straight out of a movie. I’m so grateful for that!” (PR)