Back in the days when Instagram wasn’t a thing, the most common way for people to send messages to friends and family from the place they were visiting was through postcards.
It’s nothing compared to uploading pictures on the Internet nowadays but it did travel just as fast as the snail mail of the time. At least, most of them did.
One man recently received a postcard he had sent to his parents when he was visiting Benidorm, Spain, 28 years after he had sent it.
Watch him talk about the inicident below.
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Video credit: Rumble
Jim Green, 66, had sent the postcard to let his parents know that he had safely arrived at his destination. He now lives in his parents’ home in Braintree, Essex, which is why he was on-hand to receive the (very) late mail.
Dated September 12, 1991, Jim, who was 39 years old at the time, thought his parents would get his message at the usual speed that mail took at that time.
The postcard read: “To Mum and Dad. Had a good flight over. Everything’s ok. Good hotel, weather, etc. Weather has been very hot. Hope cats are ok. Must close now, love Jim.”
Jim was watching TV when the postcard arrived on October 17, 2019. At first, he didn’t recognize the postcard.
Jim explained: “I picked up the letter and my first thought was ‘who is in Benidorm?’ Then I looked at the date and realized it was 28 years late! I was amazed!
“Then I realized that I had written it to tell my parents I had arrived in Benidorm safely.”
Unfortunately, both his parents have already passed away so he can’t share the surprise with them.
Because he loved traveling when he was young, Jim often sent postcards to his parents. For some reason, he can’t recall writing this one but he assumes it must have been during the early part of his Spanish trips.
“With these kinds of things, you always say it’s a great holiday but actually it wasn’t good at all!” he recalled.
Jim’s father, Christopher, died in 1997 while his mother, Winifred, passed away five years ago.
Jim added: “My dad would have just said: ‘Well that’s just the post for you!’
“They never really went abroad on holiday, they used to go to the seaside at Clacton or Maldon or go on coach trips. I think at the time there weren’t many people that went away for holidays.
“I suppose it gave them an idea of what Benidorm looked like.”
Generations of the Green family have called the Essex neighborhood of Finchingfield home from as far back as the mid-1800’s. After his mother died, Jim took over the house.
While he’s certainly amused at how late the postcard arrived, Jim can’t help but wonder why it took as long as it did to get delivered.
He added: “I don’t know why it arrived after this length of time. Whether it got lost over here or whether it got lost over here, I don’t know.
“I’m still trying to figure out why the delay was that long, I don’t think we’ll ever know what really happened. I think it would be pretty hard to trace it back.”
A Royal Mail spokesman said: “It is difficult to speculate what may have happened to this item of mail, but it is likely that it was put back into the postal system by someone recently, rather than it being lost or stuck somewhere.
“Royal Mail regularly checks all its delivery offices and clears its processing machines daily. Once an item is in the postal system then it will be delivered to the address on the card.”
Replaced!