Woman Receives Birthday Card Mailed by Her Mom 45 Years Earlier, in 1969

Susan Heifetz of Brooklyn said she was "emotional" about receiving mail from her now deceased mother

By John Boone Apr 09, 2014 6:33 PMTags
Susan HeifetzCBS

Remember that movie The Lake House with Sandy Bullock and Keanu Reeves? Where they mail each other letters through time and space? This is kind of like that, but with less Keanu Reeves.

A Brooklyn woman, Susan Heifetz, received a letter that her now-deceased mother had mailed 45 years ago. It was a birthday card to celebrate Susan's 19th birthday, dated June 27, 1969.

According to the New York Post, the letter was delivered to Susan's childhood home in Sheepshead Bay. The current tenant tracked Susan down (she's a real estate agent, so her number was easy to find online) and called her.

"He said, ‘I have a letter for you and the only reason I'm trying to find you is because it's postmarked 1969,' " Susan explains. "I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh.'...I was very emotional about it."

CBS

"Dear daughter Susan," the card began. "Mazel tov!" Her mother went on to wish her "health, happiness, success and a long life." It was signed, "Love and kisses, Mamma Molly and Daddy Sam."

And then the envelope was sealed with a kiss, something her mother always did. Susan says she "immediately" recognized her mom's signature lipstick shade. "Her Max Factor lipstick 45 years later...it hasn't faded."

Three days later, Susan received two more letters: A birthday card from her brother Barry that he also sent 45 years earlier and another letter from an old boyfriend who served in Vietnam, dated October 25, 1969.

"He had tried to reach me before he went overseas," Heifetz said. "But in 1969 there were no answering machines." (Sidebar: Now that is like The Lake House! Oh, what could have been, Susan, had you only received that letter?! It goes without saying, we would watch this movie.) 

"I always knew that my parents watched over the family," Susan told CBS. "It's something else to get something like this. It validates everything." Meanwhile, her brother Barry says, "It's obviously some kind of blessing from above."

It's obviously also a sign that the Brooklyn post office was a hot mess in 1969. 

(H/T Jezebel)