Two days ago, an Oregon man named Alan Marion received a postcard sent from Portland. But the postcard wasn't addressed to him: instead, it was meant for his great-grandmother Florence, which makes sense since it was postmarked Feb. 20, 1940.

The postcard actually arrived first at the post office in Butte Falls, Oregon in July of last year, but it took an employee there named Sunny Bryant (with help from a woman named Charleen Brown) almost 10 months to track down a relative of Florence Marion's.

The postcard, which shows a large ship in the Philippines' Manilla Bay, reads:

"Arrived in Portland at 8 o'clock. Having a fine time. Be home sometime Sat. — Blanche."

How it took the postcard 70 years to reach a final destination is unclear, and will probably never be figured out. One postal official theorized that the postcard ended up unopened in a drawer somewhere before being put back into the mail after a housecleaning or garage sale.

So, if you have something you want to say to your great-grandchildren, put a letter in the mail now.

[via The Register-Guard, image via Shutterstock]