While neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays the couriers of the United States Postal Service from their appointed rounds, someone’s got some explaining to do as to why a birthday card mailed in 1969 just reached its intended recipient, 45 years later.

The envelope was postmarked June 26, 1969, and showed up last week at the Brooklyn apartment where the woman used to live with her family all those years ago. The current resident tracked down the rightful recipient and was able to reach her on the phone.

And of course, for her, it’s better late than never, reports CBS News.

“I said ‘tell me what else is on the envelope,’ at which point she said to me ‘on the back is a lipstick mark,’ and at that point I started to cry,” she recalls, “This was my mother’s thing at the time. To always seal it with a kiss.”

Her parents passed away more than 10 years ago, and she says she overjoyed to hear from their 1969 selves.

“I always knew that my parents watched over the family. It’s something else to get something like this. It validates everything,” she said.

There must be something in the air because it gets even weirder — three days after that, she got another letter from 1969, this time from an old boyfriend who was serving in Vietnam. And then her local post office found another birthday card, this time from her brother, who had also mailed it — you guessed it — 45 years ago.

She’s now reconsidering leaving Brooklyn, where her parents are buried, to move closer to her brother, who lives in Las Vegas.

“Which is why this is just to me was like 45 years later…’we found you! We’re always going to be with you, so don’t worry! Do what you gotta do,'” she said.

As for where those letters have been, the USPS doesn’t know. Maybe stuck under someone’s chair or hanging out under the vending machine or something.

Brooklyn woman gets 45-year-old letters from loved ones in the mail [CBS News]

You can tweet to MBQ on Twitter in 2014 if you like, and I won’t take 45 years to read it: @marybethquirk

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