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Calgary Letter Reaches Intended Mailbox 45 Years Later

Letter From 1969 Finally Arrives
CBC Eyeopener

It took 45 years, but a letter between two sisters finally made its way to the intended Calgary mailbox.

"Dear customer, we sincerely regret that your mail item is damaged," Canada Post wrote on the package delivered to Anne Tingle's house.

"It was found in this condition in the mail stream. We realize your mail is important to you and we are always concerned when mail entrusted to our care is damaged."

Tingle told Postmedia News she was puzzled when she pulled the package out of her mailbox — an old, weathered letter tucked between two pieces of cardboard and slipped inside a plastic sleeve.

"'What kind of fresh hell is this?’ ” Tingle thought to herself.

Tingle says she first noticed the six cent stamp and 1969 postmark, as well as the wrong house number and a lack of city, province or postal code, according to CBC News.

The letter was written by Tingle's sister Esther, who was just nine years old at the time. It starts with a poem and goes on to thank her sister for the summer stay at Tingle's home in Calgary.

At the time, Esther was living in Lethbridge, meaning it took the letter 45 years to make the 215-kilometre trek to Calgary.

According to the National Post, hypothetically the letter travelled at roughly the pace of 0.0005 km/h over its 45-year journey — plenty slower than a snail's pace, which is clocked at 0.048 km/h.

“It’s a beautiful mystery — these kind of things are very rare,” Anick Losier, spokeswoman for Canada Post, told the Calgary Sun about the slow-moving correspondence.

“In this particular case we’re still not able to explain it, and in some cases it remains a mystery,” she said, adding Canada Post has talked to the current and former mail carriers, who cannot explain the delay.

Tingle agrees that the circumstances are rather remarkable.

"I think it’s the most wonderful, incredible mystery. And why are we maligning Canada Post when they do this kind of heroic thing for four and a half decades for six cents?” she asked in an interview with CBC's The Eyeopener.

Listen to Tingle's full interview with The Eyeopener:

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