A Winnipeg family says a postcard mailed from Slovenia during a backpacking trip through Europe has finally reached its destination — 32 years after it was sent. Connie Clark says she found the postcard in her mail last Friday, addressed to her Winnipeg home. It was written by her nephew, Dwayne Clark, recounting the sights of his backpacking trip through Europe. “Because he travelled there last year, I thought, ‘Oh, maybe they sent it last year.’ And then I looked at the date, and it said 1994,” she told CTV News, seated next to her nephew. “So right away, I knew it must have been lost in the mail someplace.” Dwayne says he was 22 years old when he wrote the postcard while backpacking through Europe with a friend. “We were in Rome, and we picked up some postcards. I remember… we were on our way to Slovenia, taking the train, and we ended up in Ljubljana,” Dwayne said. “And it looks like that’s where I mailed these bunch of postcards from.” A review of the postcard shows Dwayne dated it Aug. 10, 1994, writing that he would be sending it from Slovenia and that “you should get it in about 12 months.” “We are now just leaving Ljubljana where the streets are so quiet and it is a very friendly city. We should be going to Prague and Poland next. We never know. Hope all is well. Have a great rest of the summer,” it concludes. A circular postmark on the postcard appears to show “94,” consistent with the card’s handwritten date. Dwayne says he recalls mailing only a handful of cards during the trip. Until last week, he had no idea whether any of those cards had ever reached their recipients. “I’d never thought about it,” he said. “Maybe there’s more of them… going to arrive next week.” Dwayne says he learned the postcard had surfaced when he visited his aunt on Wednesday to help her with a task around the house. “She said, ‘Look what I have! Look what I just received!’ I looked at this thing, and I’m like, ‘No way!’” he said. ”It’s just a wild story. So, it brought back some good memories from my travelling around with my friend.” Connie says she wasn’t bothered by not hearing from her nephew while he travelled. Now, she says the postcard’s late arrival is a welcome surprise. “It is very nice,” she said. “We’re pretty close family, so you know it’s just nice that he did that.” Not only did the postcard’s arrival bring back memories of the trip, but it also reconnected Dwayne with an old friend, he said. “We talked about this last night, actually,” he said. “So it was a really good conversation.” Dwayne says he has since been back to Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, within the past year and remembers the city much more clearly now than he did from the trip 32 years ago. As for where the postcard has spent the past three decades, neither Connie nor Dwayne can say with certainty. “Who knows? Lost letter department, probably,” Connie said. “Maybe in a building that got torn down, they found it and mailed it. It’s not damaged a lot.” Dwayne says he also has no idea what may have led to the lengthy delay. He says he now plans to reach out to see whether any of the other postcards he mailed from Europe in 1994 — including ones to his parents and a couple of cousins — ever turned up. “I will be asking,” he said with a smile.
