Connecticut Family Receives Postcard From Dead Aunt Mailed 53 Years Ago

— -- A Connecticut family got a shock on Tuesday after a funny-looking postcard arrived -- 53 years late.

“It took my breath away,” Joan Quirk told ABC's West Haven affiliate WTNH.

Emotions ran high in the Quirk household when the family realized that the card, mailed in 1963, was from an aunt who had long since passed away.

“They had said they had arrived safely and were having a good time, and [were] looking forward to my graduation,” an emotional Ed Quirk told WTNH.

On the front of the card was a picture of the Kennedy Compound, and the back revealed a 4-cent stamp.

“The Vietnam war was going on, my friends were worried about going there,” Joan recalled.

“My aunt probably missed out because she never got a reply,” Ed added.

What happened to the letter over the course of five decades remains a mystery, but it arrived with a note from a postal clerk who thought it was still worth making good on the delivery.

“[The postal clerk] said it was probably stuck in a carrier's bag or a box,” Ed said.

Calls for comment to the United States Postal Service were not immediately returned.

The family is grateful, nonetheless, that the card finally made its way home, and they say the postal worker is their hero.

“What really got me was that someone took the time on his own to find us," Joan said. "That’s just not heard of today.”