--- title: Dad Receives Father's Day Card From Son—20 Years After His Death description: "It's like a sign from heaven." canonical: https://time.com/3950511/fathers-day-card-26-years-late/ author: Tanya Basu article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-09T00:42:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:21:55.323Z og:title: A Fathers Day Card Arrives 20 Years After Son's Death og:description: "It's like a sign from heaven" og:url: https://time.com/3950511/fathers-day-card-26-years-late/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Fathers Day Card Arrives 20 Years After Son's Death twitter:description: "It's like a sign from heaven" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Dad Receives Father's Day Card From Son—20 Years After His Death > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Jul 9, 2015 12:42 AM UTC  by [Tanya Basu](https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/)  ## Tanya Basu Jul 9, 2015 12:42 AM UTC The Father’s Day card that arrived in Duane Schrock Sr.’s mailbox was otherwise simple. “Dear Dad, we haven’t been in touch for quite a while, I’m doing fine and am very happy in Richmond, I’d like to hear from you. Have a Happy Father’s Day, Love Duane.” > [](https://twitter.com/WPXI/status/618917787277336576) But for Schrock, 89, a Virginia resident, the card was a bittersweet voice from the past. His son, also named Duane, died of AIDS in 1995\. Duane sent the card in 1989, years before his death, but it took 26 years for it to make its way to Schrock through the Postal Service. The card meant all the more to Schrock because he had a tumultuous relationship with his son, since he disapproved of Duane’s homosexuality. “I still kind of tear up when I think about it,” [Schrock told ABC](http://7online.com/family/man-receives-fathers-day-card-from-late-son-26-years-after-he-sent-it/833683/). The card, though late, has renewed Schrock’s “faith in the mail service.” “It’s like a sign from heaven,” Schrock said. \[[_ABC_](http://7online.com/family/man-receives-fathers-day-card-from-late-son-26-years-after-he-sent-it/833683/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3950511/fathers-day-card-26-years-late/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3950511/fathers-day-card-26-years-late/"},"headline":"Dad Receives Father's Day Card From Son—20 Years After His Death","datePublished":"2015-07-09T00:42:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:21:55.323Z","description":"\"It's like a sign from heaven\"","url":"https://time.com/3950511/fathers-day-card-26-years-late/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","U.S.","Post office","fathers"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tanya Basu","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tanya-basu/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3950511/fathers-day-card-26-years-late/","name":"Dad Receives Father's Day Card From Son—20 Years After His Death"}}]}] ```