Life magazine arrives 41 years late

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich., May 7 (UPI) -- A Traverse City, Mich., woman received a curious piece of mail -- an issue of Life magazine meant for delivery in July 1966.

Sondra Hardy said the magazine, which was addressed to Mrs. Larry Hardy, a title that belongs to her but in 1966 was another woman named Sarah, came with a note from the Traverse City mail processing plant saying: "The enclosed was found loose in the mail or was damaged in handling by the Postal Service," the Traverse City Record-Eagle reported Monday.

"Then I just thought it was hysterical," Hardy said. "Did the post office decide they were going to do their 41-year cleaning?"

What's more, mail processing plant manager Jerry Clishe said a second magazine -- this one a 1968 issue of Life featuring Katharine Hepburn on the cover -- is on its way to the same woman.

Clishe said the fact that it seems to have happened twice makes a "lost in the mail" explanation unlikely.

"Somebody must've found it in their attic and shot it through the system," he said.