14 DAY TRIAL // We all understand that the post office can sometimes deliver mail a little bit late, but receiving a letter 45 years after it was sent would probably shock anybody. A Brooklyn woman got the surprise of her life last week, when she finally received three cards that had been mailed to her in 1969.
Among the pieces of mail Susan Heifetz got 45 years later there is a birthday card postmarked June 26, 1969. It was sent by her late mother on her 19th birthday and was sealed with a kiss – something that her mother always used to do.
The 64-year-old woman also received a message from a man she briefly dated in her youth and another birthday card from her brother, the New York Post informs.
The seriously delayed letters arrived at Susan's childhood home in Sheepshead Bay on Wednesday, and the current tenant tracked her down and handed her the old correspondence. The man found Heifetz's phone number online and gave her a call to tell her about the decades-old pieces of mail that were waiting for her.
“I've been crying since Wednesday. I'm flipping out. This is not normal to get three cards from 1969,” the woman said after collecting her long-overdue mail.
When she saw the card from her mother, she immediately recognized the lipstick on the back of the envelope and got very emotional. Although the wishes came decades later, Susan was overjoyed to read something written by her parents, who both passed away more than a decade ago.
As for the other two letters, one was another 19th birthday card from her brother Barry, who now lives in Las Vegas, and the other was a message from a young man called Mark Wolf she had once dated, and who was serving in Vietnam. The note was postmarked October 25, 1969.
Heifetz says the unexpected mail couldn't have come at a better time, as she was trying to make a difficult decision. She was thinking about leaving Brooklyn, where her parents were buried, and move to Las Vegas to be closer to her brother.
The woman took the special delivery as a sign of approval form her parents.
“I felt like this was a stamp of approval. Like, [she was telling me] ‘We’ll always be in your hearts and soul. We found you 45 years later,’” she said.
Susan retired from her job with NYPD and has recently put her house up for sale. She now plans to meet her brother in New York and drive together to Las Vegas, where she will enjoy retirement.