Not having the chance to at least say good-bye

We just had our worries confirmed that our mailman is dying from cancer.
Martin overheard a discussion about it in the pub.
He's already in the hospital and they do not expect him to be able to leave it again, he has already been taken to palliative care.

He has been the most cheerful and friendly and helpful mailman you could ever imagine. He always had a nice word for everybody he met in the street, and gave everyone a smile.
He was cheerful and humming even the 300 days a year when rain is pouring down over here.
When he was tipped for his great service or given delicious chocolate goodies around Christmas time he gave you a hug, even Martin. :)
He was THE perfect small town mailman, who knew your name and only jokingly rolled his eyes when he delivered five flat rate envelopes full of fabric in one day AGAIN.
He always rang the doorbell to let you know there was something for you to pick up, so you wouldn't have to get down the stairs for nothing.

I should think he was/is (how awful!) around 40. I have no idea if he had family... I hope so.
Last time I saw him must be around 6 months ago, he was cheerful as ever.
While I worked in Luxembourg the last year of course I hardly ever got to meet him in person, sometimes on Saturdays, but when I quit working in July and as a cause of that was home again in the mornings I never heard the doorbell again, and that puzzled me.

First I thought it might be because he was used to me not being at home in the mornings any more, then I wondered if he had been sent to a different district, and later I thought that he might be on holiday, but as a couple of weeks passed and there were different mailmen every day who could not possibly have all just been helping out over the summer holidays I started to worry.

Martin overheard a person in the football pub talk about their cancer treatment.
Martin does not have a good memory when it comes to people and faces, and of course he hasn't seen the mailman day after day over a couple of years, but he told me about it and said that this person had somewhat resembled our "old" mailman.
And I was like "yes, I have thought of something like that, too"... That's only a couple of weeks ago.

So last weekend, when Martin was about to leave the house for the pub, I asked him to talk to the owner of the pub about what he overheard, and if it was possible that that had been our mailman.
In a small town like our's we all know each other, and the pub is right around the corner where I used to live when I was still living on my own, so my mailman was the pub's mailman also, and I know he also went there every once in a while because of the music (he is one 80s rock music fan which I could tell by the shirts he was wearing when I saw him around when he was not "on duty", and that was a rock music & football pub).
And the pub owner I know because he was not only a neighbour but pub people know each other, and I had worked in another pub just round the corner all my college years...so.
And the pub owner confirmed our worries. It is our mailman after all.

He's in palliative care already and I can't even say goodbye. Goodbye, and thank you.

Thank you for being such a heartwarming person, you made so many peoples' days, day after day.
Thanks for your unconditional friendliness, your humour and good spirits.

You are an outstanding mailman, and there will never be a mailman just like you.

I am sorry if this sounds pathetic, but that's just the way it is.

I hope our mailman at least has a nice family to look after him.

We had so many people die from cancer in the last two years.
I hate cancer.