All Joe and Adele Federman wanted was a new mailbox.

Thanks to a good Samaritan, the Sylvania Township couple can cross it off their to-do list.

“It has been a mess for a number of years,” Mrs. Federman, 88, said of the aging mailbox. “We finally went out and bought a new one, but we couldn’t get anyone to replace it for us.

“The mailbox kept leaning over and over and over — the wood was rotting away,” she said. “Finally, it fell in the road. Someone saw it there, picked up, fixed the pieces, and put it back together.”

It wasn’t quite Humpty Dumpty, but pieces of the mailbox, which is shaped like a house, had chipped and fallen off altogether. A hammer and nails were needed to help make it one piece again. A deep hole was dug to place the post in the ground before being reinforced with bricks.

When the Federmans awoke, they were astonished not only to see their mailbox standing but also that it was intact.

“We had no idea anyone would fix it,” Mr. Federman, 90, said.

The couple moved to the area 10 years ago from New York to be closer to their son, Steven, a professor of astronomy at the University of Toledo, and their grandchildren. They were hesitant about the move, especially after living in New York their entire lives. But they were quickly put at ease by the friendliness and small-town feel in Toledo.

A helpful hand nearly a decade ago was the first hint of aid they would receive.

“There were leaves all over the grass,” Mrs. Federman said. “Joe went outside and used the blower to gather them up. All of a sudden, he heard another blower and the couple that lives next door and their children had come over to help.”

It was an act that the native Long Islanders have come to appreciate about their adoptive northwest Ohio community. Residents of their neighborhood have never shied from helping.

“Even more so than any of us expected,” Steven Federman said. “They’ve always said that people here are so much more friendlier [than in New York] and willing to help people.”

When the decision came to purchase a new mailbox, the couple said they knew installing it would pose problems. They were determined to replace it, though, and believed the summer months would give them ample opportunity to complete the project.

Instead, other activities took up time and summer became fall, and the deteriorating mailbox did not improve. It remained a project the Federmans intended to complete.

Now, it’s unnecessary.

“Of course we were happy,” Mrs. Federman said. “Oh, yes.”

Contact Kyle Rowland at: krowland@theblade.com, 419-724-6282, or on Twitter @KyleToledoBlade.

First Published October 27, 2015, 4:52 a.m.