(CNN/WOOD) - A Grand Rapids man discovered a letter in his mailbox that had been mailed from Europe nearly 45 years ago.

Evan Koons found the letter inside a plastic bag with an apology.

"Dear postal customer we sincerely regret the damage to your mail by the postal service," Koons said.

Koons and a WOOD reporter tracked down the woman who mailed the letter in 1974 - Mary Vaughan Brady.

"I'm looking at it going 45 years ago. I can't believe it. 45 years ago," Brady said.

Brady said she had just graduated from community college and decided to backpack through Europe with a friend before her wedding.

"I'd never seen a mountain at that point. never been on a plane ride never stayed in a hotel anything," Brady said.

She didn't call her family while she was gone, she sent them letters about her adventure.

"And my family never got it," Brady.

Reading the letters brought back memories of her trip all those years ago.

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