A California man lost his parents in 2020 and 2022. He recently got a postcard from them in the mail.

On August 5, 2026, Bob Sheppard found a single postcard in his mailbox at home in Long Beach. The postcard, which was aged and came from Copenhagen, had a message written in handwriting he recognized and was signed “M + D.” This referred to his parents, but it was confusing because his mother, Joanne, had died in 2022, and his father, John, had passed away in 2020. Sheppard noticed that the postcard had two postmarks: one from Los Angeles in August 2026 and another from Denmark in July 2000.

The postcard was sent by his parents 26 years earlier during their trip. It included a note about what they saw while flying in, mentioning the water and lush green land. The card was lost for many years before finally arriving at Sheppard’s home. He wondered how it ended up being delivered so long after it was sent. Questions swirled in his mind about its journey: Was it hidden away in a mail truck? Did someone find it in an old mailbag? What motivated that person to mail it instead of discarding it? Despite the mysteries, receiving the postcard was very meaningful for Sheppard.

He shared that his father had died early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and he wasn’t able to be with him during his final moments due to hospital restrictions. The pandemic made it hard for many people to say goodbye to loved ones, which added to the pain of loss. Sheppard remembered his parents’ love for travel, which made the postcard all the more special. He described his father as caring and intelligent, while his mother was sociable and energetic. To him, the postcard felt like a message from beyond.

Although the postal service usually delivers mail reliably, sometimes items get lost. Occasionally, letters or postcards resurface years later. For example, a woman in Brooklyn received a birthday card from her mother that had been sent in 1969 for her 19th birthday. Similarly, John Lennon wrote a letter to singer Steve Tilston in 1971, which wasn’t seen by Tilston until 34 years later. In another case, a letter of condolence took 80 years to reach the family of a girl who had passed away. Most lost mail does not get delivered to its intended recipients, but Sheppard was lucky that his parents’ postcard finally arrived.

What do you think about mail that arrives years later?