Galápagos Islands mail mystery solved after phone call from stranger
When Sherry Kirkvold played the voicemail message from a stranger – which began with, “Hi. This is kind of a random message for you. This one’s been a while.” – she couldn’t have been more surprised.
“That made my day,” Sherry recalls with a laugh.
To appreciate why she was so pleased, we need to go back to her first trip to the Galápagos Islands in 1991.
“There were blue-footed boobies with bright blue feet,” the long-time naturalist says, pointing to a picture of the bird, before showing others of giant tortoises, orange iguanas, and pink flamingos.
Sherry’s album also includes images from Floreana Island’s Post Office Bay, which features old oil barrels where visitors had been dropping off letters for centuries, so others heading in the direction they were addressed could hand-deliver them.
“I really wanted to participate,” Sherry smiles. “So I wrote myself a postcard.”
On the front of the card was a picture of a pair of giant tortoises. On the back, Sherry wrote a message wondering if it might be delivered to Canada at a tortoise pace.
“So it really was prophetic,” Sherry laughs.
Because the card didn’t arrive a few months later. Nor a couple years.
“And then I forgot about it,” Sherry says.
Until she received that voicemail message from Susan Fanning.
“We love nature,” Susan says over Zoom from her home in Strathmore, Alta. “We love adventure.”
And Susan loved — when she was six months pregnant — visiting the Galápagos with her husband in 1991, leaving a letter in an oil barrel addressed to their unborn child.
“We hoped she’d receive the letter before she was 18,” Susan laughs.
While their letter arrived before the baby was born, the postcard with the two tortoise on the front that they picked-up to hand-deliver when they returned to Canada, would take much longer to deliver.
“We went to the address that was on the card,” Sharon says of one trip from Alberta to B.C. to visit relatives. “Someone who came to the door said (Sherry) no longer lived there."
But Susan didn’t give up. Whenever she’d visit family in Victoria, she’d bring the card and keep sleuthing. But during the pre-internet early '90s, that proved to be a challenge
“So I brought it home again,” Susan says. “And into the china cabinet it went!”
And there is stayed – until Susan recently re-discovered it, searched for Sherry online, and made contact.
“It just felt joyful,” Susan smiles.
Susan mailed the card, and it arrived in Victoria a few days later, more than three decades after it was first sent.
“It was 33 years,” Susan laughs. “And six weeks!”
While Sherry feels thankful for Susan’s dedication, she’s even more grateful to be forming a long-distance friendship with her.
“Travel is about the people you meet and the connections you make,” Sherry smiles.
And this card connection, the new friends say, is proving to be about preserving tradition, being persistent, and staying hopeful.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Ambassador says interactions with Russia 'quite limited' but 'not unfriendly'
Canada's ambassador to Russia says while Ottawa has 'grave concerns' about the Kremlin's 'longer-term trends,' the war in Ukraine is 'a primary barrier to a change in the relationship.'
Bathroom break nearly derails $22 million project at city council meeting
A brief break during Wednesday's city council meeting in Saskatoon nearly cost the city dearly.
Lanny McDonald and a few old Flames take the Stanley Cup on a surprise visit to the man who saved his life
The Stanley Cup was passing through town Friday, and Lanny Legend took it upon himself to take it for a surprise visit.
Chad Daybell sentenced to death for killing wife and girlfriend’s two children in jury decision
Jurors resumed deliberations Saturday on whether a man should be sentenced to death after being convicted days earlier of the murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children in Idaho.
Robert Pickton stabbed with toothbrush and broken broom handle: victim's family
The family of one of Robert Pickton's victims says the convicted serial killer suffered an incredibly violent death at the hands of another inmate.
Father who killed one-year-old son with axe may be allowed to travel in southwestern Ontario
A Mennonite father who killed his one-year-old son with an axe may be allowed to travel to parts of southern Ontario in the coming months
'It feels like freedom': Why some Albertans like going nude in nature
Few people can say they accidentally purchased a nude beach — but Shelley can. When she saw a piece of land she could fondly remember camping on was up for sale, she inquired about it and ended up purchasing it. She soon found that there were already inhabitants on it.
This Calgary home has a giant tree in the middle, and it's for sale
There's a luxury 'tree home' for sale in Calgary.
China lands spacecraft on the moon amid growing space rivalry with U.S.
A Chinese spacecraft landed on the far side of the moon Sunday to collect soil and rock samples that could provide insights into differences between the less-explored region and the better-known near side.