After a strenuous early afternoon of hanging curtains at the Jonesville Office, I took Tammie (my bride) out for lunch for the work she had done in the office.

We were in line at a local restaurant, and there was an older lady ahead of us.  As she reached the end of the line to pay for the sandwiches, she started writing a check (drawn on our Bank).  The cashier said, “I’m sorry we do not take checks anymore.”   The woman looked somewhat shocked and bewildered.

I stepped up and introduced myself and told her lunch was on me and that she could stop by and see Rachel, Crissie, or Jeff and get a debit card any time, and it would only take 5 minutes or so to get one.

She was pleased but wanted to write me a check for paying. I told her no and thanked her for her business.

Upon returning from lunch, the lady was in Rachel’s office, had gotten her new debit card, and wanted to pay me.  I again told her no.

She told me that she was 86, and she and her husband had banked here for a long time and that many times without Browning Wynn’s (the original) help, she and her family would have gone hungry and…

That we were, are, and would always be her Bank!

Recently, we have had a number of folks in our communities impacted by mine closures due to Bankruptcy of the coal companies.  We pray that they will re-open.

The struggles for these folks will be difficult.  It will be challenging for us to find ways to help out our customers without putting our Bank at excessive risk.

We will find ways to meet this challenge as we have since 1888.

I still get questions from others in our profession as to why I choose to work in a community bank in a mostly rural area.

Perhaps our friendly customer I met at lunch could explain it to them for me.

– Leton

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“Letters From Leton” is a blog series comprised of the weekly updates that Leton Harding – President, Chairman, and CEO of Powell Valley National Bank, shares with the Bank’s team members. These newsletters are full of uplifting anecdotes and intriguing insights that are applicable beyond the Bank, so we want to share them with you.