The postal service in Edwardian England was a pinnacle of efficiency: twice-daily deliveries, and even soldiers in the trenches of the Western Front reliably receiving mail from home the next day. But not all postal services are so efficient. A resident of Bagdad, Tasmania, a small town just outside Hobart, mailed a cheque to their local butcher. It eventually arrived – via Iraq.
Still, better late than never. Even 75 years later.
Recovering from chemotherapy during lockdown, Stu Prince found a new mission – reuniting old postcards he’d found at online auctions with their owners. With one card in particular, he helped revive memories that had been buried for decades.
The postcard had been sent a year after World War Two ended, but it still looked bright and colourful. On its front was a cartoon of a rabbit asleep in a crib underneath the heading: “You’re one to-day.”
On the reverse was a stamp bearing the head of King George, postmarked 27 September 1946. Next to that was an address: Miss F Kaye of 12 Northumberland Mansions, Luxborough Street, London, W1. And there was a neatly written message, too.
“To our loving grand-daughter,” it read, “wishing you many returns of the day. And may your future be a happy and peaceful one.”
Stu posted a photo of the card to his Facebook page. Then he received a message: “I found the baby”.
Miss F Kaye, now Mrs Frimette Carr, was so happy to receive the card from Stu, carefully wrapped and cushioned between two bits of cardboard – and it still looks as good as new, even after three quarters of a century.
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A postcard sent to Adelaide from Tahiti didn’t take quite so long: just 50 years.
An Adelaide couple were somewhat surprised in 2016 to find a postcard in their mailbox, postmarked 1966. The postcard, depicting the Papeete waterfront and Bloc Donald building, was addressed to one Robert Giorgio, from his friend Chris – who wrote that he was “enjoying myself greatly”, despite the “very humid” weather.
In the end, Robert Giorgio received the postcard – and was reunited with an old friend.
Prospect man Chris Reynolds has identified himself as the person who originally posted the card […] The Advertiser has reconnected Dr Reynolds with the postcard’s original recipient, his school mate Roberto Giorgio; they had not seen each other for more than 30 years.
Dr Reynolds, 66, said it was a shock to see the postcard, which he had sent to his Rostrevor College friend in 1966.
“I thought, ‘God, that’s my handwriting’,” he said.
“I confess I can’t remember writing it but we were in Tahiti at the time … I was 15 and was on my way to England for 12 months with my parents and brother and sister.
As it turns out, Mr Giorgio actually did receive the postcard in 1966, but suspects he lost it when he moved to Darwin in the early 1970s. It was later found by another man who said he felt compelled to return it to its original address.
Mr Giorgio, of Holden Hill, said he was pleased to meet up with his old school friend.
“It makes everything that happened in between drop away […] it is nice to be reminded I was actually 16 once,” he said.
Adelaide Now
On the other hand, a postcard in France took an astonishing 138 years to travel just 10 kilometres. The postcard was mailed from Sains-du-Nord in 1877. It finally arrived at its destination, just 10 km away in Trélon – where it was received by its intended recipient’s great-granddaughter, now in her 80s.
Not all late-letter stories end quite as happily as the British birthday card or Tahiti postcard.
A specialist postal service in Japan offers to hold what it calls “Heartful Letters, to be delivered ten years later. A Japanese couple has recently received a Heartful Letter from their daughter – who died in the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
The letter arrived to her mother, 51, and father, 59, in the post in January.
The 26-year-old woman had been working in Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture, when the tsunami struck Japan. She had been working in the town hall when the tsunami hit and it is believed she drowned in the disaster, although her body was never found, Japan Today reports.
In a tragic twist of fate, their daughter used the letter to muse on how her life might turn out.
“I think I might be married and have kids, but what if I’m all alone,” she wrote in the two-page letter. Just before her death she had gotten engaged to her boyfriend of eight years.
“Mum and Dad you’ve done so much for me, so I want to return the favour to you from now on.”
Musing on the letter, her mother said: “Who’d have thought she wouldn’t even be here in 10 years?”
International Business Times
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