A postcard from his late parents arrived 26 years later

Bob Sheppard opened his mailbox in Long Beach, California, this August and found a postcard his parents mailed from Copenhagen in July 2000. It had taken 26 years to travel from Denmark to his front door. "Flying in, we saw lots of water and green, green land everywhere. Love, M&D," they had written. Both of his parents have since died. His mother, Joanne, four years ago. His father, John, six years ago during the pandemic, when hospital restrictions meant Sheppard never got to say goodbye. "It haunts me to this day," he said. So a handwritten note in their hands, arriving now, undid him. "I just started looking at it and go, 'Oh my gosh. This is a treasure!'" His mail carrier guessed the card had slipped behind a cabinet somewhere for two decades. Sheppard prefers a different theory. "This was, to me, almost a postcard from heaven," he said.