Author of 50-Year-Old Postcard Found

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It took over fifty years for the card to arrive after being sent from Maine. It was addressed to Stratford’s town manager, Harry Flood, who died in 1966.

The message was simple: “Hi, Enjoying this rather fallish weather. It was 44 degrees yesterday. See you next week. Alice.”

A local genealogist researched the card and concluded that it may have been sent by Alice Staples, the widow of an assistant town clerk at the time.

The two, Flood and Staples, lived on the same street, socialized with the same friends, and are buried a few feet apart in the cemetery.

However, that’s not the end of the story. An 85-year-old town resident, James Merrill, was so intrigued that he sent the story to his daughter, Jan Oldham. She is a preservationist librarian at Harvard.

She recognized the handwriting to be that of her mother’s, Alice Merrill. She couldn’t believe that the genealogist had concluded that it had been written by another Alice. She teased her father that he didn’t even recognize his own wife’s handwriting.

After this, James Merrill took a closer look and realized that it was his wife who had written the postcard.

The Merrills apparently vacationed in East Sumner, Maine, each summer. Alice Merrill, now 93, enjoyed sending postcards to her friends, although she doesn’t remember sending this one.

Postal officials say that the card was not likely sitting in a post office for all those years. They claim somebody had held onto it and then sent it recently. However, we all know from experience with the postal service that it was likely sitting under a stack of mail.

The mystery of where the postcard has been may never be solved. For now, the Merrills have enjoyed being a part of the story.