Card originally sent 33 years ago finally arrives, thanks to a post office's deep cleaning

A short but sweet message from a woman in California to her brother in Iowa was finally delivered — more than 30 years after it was sent.

In December 1987, Anne Lovell sent her older brother Paul Willis a postcard. On the front was a photo of Lovell in front of a waterfall, and on the back was a note: "A picture is worth 1,000 words...Happy Holidays! Love, Ann."

Somewhere between San Francisco and Willis' home in Thornton, Iowa, the postcard went missing. Willis didn't find this out until a few days ago, when the card finally made it to his mailbox. Lovell had never asked him if the postcard arrived, because "we just assumed everything in the mail went through," she told CNN.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The postcard was sent for a second time on April 29 in Des Moines. Willis called his local post office for more information, and was told that many locations are doing deep cleans because of the coronavirus, and that's likely how it was found and dropped back into the mail. Willis told CNN he and Lovell "were both really excited about it. It was one of those sort of fun things that happened."