talk about a greeting...

Man Sends Christmas Cards from Afterlife
12/26/2007

Tangren Alexander, of Ashland, Oregon, received plenty of greeting cards from her friends and family this Christmas. But one card in particular made her heart skip a beat when she noticed the name on the envelope – it was from her father, Chet Fitch. The 88-year-old man had passed away several months ago.

(Photo caption: Patty Dean, 57, holds up a Holiday greeting card she was requested to send out on behalf of her friend Chet Fitch after his death.)

The card featured a photo of Fitch and his late wife square dancing, an activity they'd always loved. In Fitch's handwriting, the note read:

"I asked Big Guy if I could sneak back and send some cards. At first he said no; but at my insistence he finally said, 'Oh well, what the heaven, go ahead but don't [tarry] there.' Wish I could tell you about things here but words cannot explain. Better get back as Big Guy said he stretched a point to let me in the first time, so I had better not press my luck. I'll probably be seeing you (some sooner than you think). Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.

Chet Fitch"

The return address on the card? Heaven, of course.

"All I could do was laugh and cry, and then laugh and cry some more," Alexander told The Ashland Daily Tidings. "It was just so sweet and funny. So much like him."

Alexander wasn't the only recipient of her father's postmortem holiday greeting – 33 other friends and family members received the same Christmas card this year from the Great Beyond, courtesy of Fitch, a famed prankster.

Patty Dean, Fitch's long-time barber, served as the accomplice to his ghostly greeting card plot. Back in 1987, while Dean was cutting his hair, Fitch asked her a favor – he wondered if she'd be willing to send one last holiday greeting card to everyone in his address book after he passed away. Of course, she couldn't say no to his mischievous grin.

Even though Dean moved many times over the last two decades, she always made sure Fitch had her new address. Fitch, in turn, filled her in on the current locations of all the greeting card recipients each year, and even sent her additional money for postage with every rate increase. And after Fitch's death, Dean held true to her word: All of Fitch's friends and family members received the final message he'd safeguarded with Dean, just as he'd requested.

"It was amazing; just so Chet," Fitch's longtime friend, Debbie Hansen-Bernard, told The Daily Tidings. "Always wanting to get the last laugh."

from Gimundo