Over the last 18 years, the Oxford family has had some interesting encounters while delivering the Daily Inter Lake in the expansive Mission Village subdivision just north of Kalispell.

There was the time Jefferson and Michelle Oxford’s youngest daughter, Mercedes, got bit on the chin when she surprised a dog. She was about 7, but the family finished the route before heading to the emergency room.

Deer, skunks and raccoons routinely have startled Oxford family members during their early morning duty.

The family has delivered the newspaper on bicycles, in a golf cart and most recently in a classic Cadillac Eldorado.

“We went through a few [side-view] mirrors,” Michelle Oxford said with a laugh.

And there was a particular fire hydrant that got in the way more than once.

Michelle said the family has always followed the U.S. Postal Service’s unofficial creed when delivering the Inter Lake: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

Whatever the weather conditions, Mission Village residents have been able to count on the Oxford family’s loyal service. But all good things must come to an end, the family acknowledged. The Oxfords recently announced they’re retiring from the newspaper delivery business at the end of the year.

“We’re trying to relax and de-stress our lives,” Jefferson said.

Both Jefferson and Michelle had paper routes when they were young — Jefferson delivered the afternoon Spokane Chronicle while Michelle was a young carrier for the North Platte Telegraph in Nebraska.

“We’ve always been big believers in reading the local paper,” Jefferson said.

The couple also work for the U.S. Postal Service and transferred to the Kalispell Post Office in 1993. Jefferson is a bulk mail technician and Michelle is the lead window clerk at the main post office on Meridian Road.

It seemed only natural to start their oldest daughter Sarah on a paper route after school when she was 11. At that time the Inter Lake was still an afternoon paper and carriers were responsible for collecting money from subscribers.

Sarah, now 28, took her part-time job very seriously. She had business cards stamped with “bunny rabbits,” she recalled.

Younger sisters Brittany and Mercedes followed in Sarah’s footsteps, providing magnetic business cards — adorned with cats — that customers could put on their refrigerators.

“We tried to be very professional,” Sarah said. “It taught us accountability.”

Sarah bought her first car at age 13 with money earned from her paper route.

The Daily Inter Lake became a morning paper not too long after Sarah started her route, and that meant starting their paper delivery job at 4:30 a.m. daily. Getting the girls out of bed at that hour wasn’t always easy, but the job always got done.

The family had a three-wheeled Harley Davidson golf cart that was the delivery vehicle for a time.

Sarah remembered the time she was driving and went in the ditch on Whitefish Stage Road. Mercedes, then 8, was helping her, and when Mercedes said she’d hurt her leg, a guilt-ridden Sarah carried her more than half a mile back to their house, only to find her younger sister “had miraculously recovered when we got to the house.”

Mercedes took on a second route when she was in the fourth grade to earn money for a children’s choir trip. That lasted only four months, though, because she was falling asleep in class, Michelle recalled.

The Oxfords will never forget how Mission Village residents supported them when Sarah was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010 and went through treatment. She’s now in remission.

“The neighbors really came through for us,” Michelle said. “We had an overwhelming response.”

In a Christmas letter sent to their newspaper patrons, the family thanked them for their support.

The Oxford girls are grown up now and headed in their own directions.

Sarah has two sons, ages 7 and 5, and is busy working full time at the post office.

Brittany, 26, is in her second year at Marylhurst University near Portland, studying art therapy.

Mercedes, 23, was married in August and is finishing her law degree at the University of Montana.

In 2009 Michelle began delivering the paper on the same route her daughters so dutifully tended. Jefferson worked nights until March 2013, but was able to help his wife once his job shifted to daytime hours.

For all 18 years, though, they were the backup carriers if the girls couldn’t complete the route. They’ve taken time off only three times in all those years.

Mission Village residents still will see the Oxfords in their neighborhood, taking walks and bringing their grandsons to the park.

But come Jan. 1, they’ll likely be sleeping in for the first time in a very long while.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.