The staff at the post office in the village of Bloungarvík in the Westfjords, West Iceland, was faced with an unusual problem last Friday when they received a postcard from Spain to a local resident. The problem the staff was facing was that it couldn‘t deliver the postcard, as they are required by law, since the recipient of the postcard had not only moved away from the village, but also passed away.
The reason was that the postcard had been mailed almost exactly 30 years ago: In October 1986.
According to a post on the website of the municipality the postcard was mailed by a then local girl, Guðný Anna Vilhelmsdóttir to her father, Vilhelm S. Annasson, and family, who had lived in the village in the 1980s. Guðný had been travelling in Spain at the time, and had sent the postcard home from Las Palmas describing her adventures in the days before and to let her family know what she was doing.
As all postcards and messages home from Icelanders abroad the postcard emphasized how warm it was where the sender was located! The first few lines read: Hi all! I’m currently at a small skerry of an island just off the coast of West Africa . This has been great fun. The heat is 24°C and this is no doubt the most beautiful place in the world.”
Knowing that the recipient did not live in the village any more the Bolungarvík post office contacted the sender of the postcard, Guðný Anna, who currently lives in Abu Dhabi, and then forwarded the postcard to her mother.
This is not the first time the Icelandic Postal Service goes the extra mile to deliver letters to their recipients! Last August the Post Office managed to deliver a letter to a „horse farm with an Icelandic/Danish couple and 3 kids” to the correct recipient.
The staff at the post office in the village of Bloungarvík in the Westfjords, West Iceland, was faced with an unusual problem last Friday when they received a postcard from Spain to a local resident. The problem the staff was facing was that it couldn‘t deliver the postcard, as they are required by law, since the recipient of the postcard had not only moved away from the village, but also passed away.
The reason was that the postcard had been mailed almost exactly 30 years ago: In October 1986.
According to a post on the website of the municipality the postcard was mailed by a then local girl, Guðný Anna Vilhelmsdóttir to her father, Vilhelm S. Annasson, and family, who had lived in the village in the 1980s. Guðný had been travelling in Spain at the time, and had sent the postcard home from Las Palmas describing her adventures in the days before and to let her family know what she was doing.
As all postcards and messages home from Icelanders abroad the postcard emphasized how warm it was where the sender was located! The first few lines read: Hi all! I’m currently at a small skerry of an island just off the coast of West Africa . This has been great fun. The heat is 24°C and this is no doubt the most beautiful place in the world.”
Knowing that the recipient did not live in the village any more the Bolungarvík post office contacted the sender of the postcard, Guðný Anna, who currently lives in Abu Dhabi, and then forwarded the postcard to her mother.
This is not the first time the Icelandic Postal Service goes the extra mile to deliver letters to their recipients! Last August the Post Office managed to deliver a letter to a „horse farm with an Icelandic/Danish couple and 3 kids” to the correct recipient.
