It’s certainly not uncommon to receive mail addressed for your neighbor, or even a person a few blocks away. And sometimes you can even wind up with a letter or two that were meant for the last owner of your home.
But for one Michigan woman, a piece of mail got the address right — it was just the year that was wrong.
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Last week, Brittany Keech was checking her mail when she came across a rather vintage-looking postcard.
At first, she was too distracted by her kids and the general business of the day to really stop and look the peculiar letter over. But once she had a chance to really examine it, she was shocked to find that it was postmarked October 29, 1920.
Talk about snail mail .
Indeed, the postcard was originally supposed to have been delivered nearly 100 years ago to her very address in Belding, Michigan.
But back then, it was meant for someone named Roy McQueen and was signed by Flossie Burgess.
The card also features a one-cent George Washington stamp in the corner, as well as a smudged stamp that appears to say Jamestown.
The Halloween-themed card offers Mr. McQueen a “Halloween greeting”, and asks him if he would rather be a “goose or a pumpkin-head?”
It goes on to read in faded writing,
“Dear Cousins,
Hope this will find you all well. We are quite well but mother has awful lame knees. It is awful cold here. I just finished my history lesson and am going to bed pretty soon. My father is shaving and my mother is telling me your address. I will have to close for a night. Hope grandma and grandpa are well. Don’t forget to write us — Roy get his pants fixed yet.”
Keech shared photos of the postcard online in hopes of finding its intended recipient, or at least his surviving family.
Posted to the local Facebook group Positively Belding , the photos have been shared over 225 times, but have yet to turn up any living relatives. However, Keech isn’t ready to give up hope.
“I have two wonderful ladies that are helping me look into their genealogy,” she told CNN .
In the meantime, one question remains: how is it possible it took nearly 100 years for the letter to be delivered?
In an interview with PEOPLE , a U.S. Postal Service spokesperson said there’s a possibility that the whole thing is just a hoax.
“In most cases, these incidents do not involve mail that had been lost in our network and later found,” the spokesperson said. “What we typically find is that old letters and postcards — sometimes purchased at flea markets, antique shops and even online — are re-entered into our system.”
They added, “The end result is what we do best — as long as there is a deliverable address and postage, the card or letter gets delivered.”
h/t: CNN , PEOPLE , Facebook | Brittany Keech