A postcard sent 32 years ago has finally been delivered.
The message from Andrew Leslie was mailed to his family's Grimsby home on August 30, 1989, while he was studying at the University of Michigan.
It describes his first impressions of the US and how he was getting to grips with his course and is addressed to the then-25-year-old's father, John.
But more than three decades on it was posted through his mum's door on Tuesday, reports GrimsbyLive.
Luckily, Anne Leslie has not moved but Andrew now lives in Nottingham.
The card was addressed to John as Anne was on a trip to Canada at the time to see her brother, with plans to meet up with Andrew at a later date.
She says she was "mystified" to pick it up from the mat and wonders why it took so long to arrive.
She got in contact with Royal Mail, which said it was "difficult to speculate" on the reasons why the postcard had only just arrived.
Adding: "Royal Mail regularly checks all its delivery offices and clears its processing machines daily. Once an item is in the postal system then it will be delivered to the address on the letter".
It also said the postcard could have been sent back into the mail system recently.
Anne said: "It was lunchtime and I went to pick up the mail and saw this postcard between a couple of catalogues.
"I saw my son's name and 'love Andrew' on it and thought: 'How strange'."
"There's no doubt about the date (on the stamp), so where's it been hiding?"
Andrew's postcard, which has an aerial picture on the front, describes his arrival in the US and the “endless” flight he had to endure from the UK and meeting his new classmates.
He also praised the USA’s "leafy, green" surroundings and wrote that he worried he may be unable to resist adopting the Americanisms used by his classmates.
His message describes his first impression of his study trip to the US
Andrew, who lives in Nottingham, said he was “surprised” at the postcard finally arriving at his parents' home after such a long period of time.
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He said: "It was addressed to my dad because my mum was leaving him at home while she came over to Canada to visit her brother and meet up with me."
The coincidence could not be more striking as Andrew said he once found a postcard in a second-hand bookshop in Lincoln during the 1980s and posted it - hoping that it would find its owners.
Andrew said: "It was stamped and addressed and written but it hadn't been sent, but it had a date on it and the date was quite a long time, 10 to 15 years before.
"So I discreetly slipped the postcard into my pocket and put it in a post box."
A few days later he found out that the card had been delivered when he read about it in the local paper.
