Brooklyn woman gets 45-year-old letters from loved ones in the mail

NEW YORK - The term "snail mail" has taken on a new meaning for a Brooklyn woman who recently received a birthday card that was 45 years too late.

Receiving the decades-old card left Susan Heifetz stunned. Her parents both passed away more than a decade ago, but the envelope was postmarked June 26, 1969, CBS New York reported.

"I always knew that my parents watched over the family. It's something else to get something like this. It validates everything," she said.

The letter was delivered to an apartment on East 12th Street in Brooklyn last week. It's the apartment where Heifetz and her family lived 45 years ago. The current tenant tracked Heifetz down and contacted her over the phone.

"I said 'tell me what else is on the envelope,' at which point she said to me 'on the back is a lipstick mark,' and at that point I started to cry," Heifetz said, "This was my mother's thing at the time. To always seal it with a kiss."

The surprises didn't end there.

Three days later Heifetz received a letter from 1969 that was written by an old boyfriend who was serving in Vietnam.

Her local post office also discovered a birthday card that her brother Barry had sent her 45 years ago.

"It's obviously some kind of blessing from above," Barry said.

Heifetz had been struggling with a decision to move closer to her brother in Las Vegas, but said that she didn't want to leave her parents who had been laid to rest in Brooklyn.

"Which is why this is just to me was like 45 years later...'we found you! We're always going to be with you, so don't worry! Do what you gotta do,'" Heifetz said.

The post office told CBS New York that they don't know where the letters have been.