OK, first of all, thanks for reading. This happened two years ago and is still on my mind sometimes. Also, English is not my first language so my apologies if I mess up.

Some background info: I'm a bit of a recluse. I work from home and love love love it. But, there are times that I don't have to leave the house for a few days. Not that I don't want to, I just don't have to. As I live in an apartment building and the mailboxes are all downstairs, I don't check my mail every day. I rarely get mail anyway, everything is digital these days. I only get spam and some local newspaper. And mail addressed to the previous owners.

I bought this house a few years ago, in August, and moved in in November 2012. The previous owners were somewhere in their 80s and moved to an assisted living facility about a mile away. It's on the way to the cinema and my parents.

After I moved in I received a considerable amount of mail for them. I would collect it and when I went to the movies about twice a month I would drop it off in their mailbox at the front desk.

Every once in a while I would receive a mourning card for them. I didn't open them, I don't even think I'm allowed to, but I would jump in my car and drop it off, because I wasn't sure when the card had arrived. This happened a few times in the first few years. Sometimes it was late and I would wait until the next morning to drop it off.

So two years ago. I had been living there for 4,5 years. I received two mourning cards within a few weeks. I dropped the first one off immediately. The second one... well crap. Something went wrong. I put it in my bag to drop it off but I wasn't feeling well and got distracted. I suck. I spent the weekend on the couch like a coughing corpse and totally forgot about it. It took me three days to drop it off. And I didn't even know when the card had arrived in the first place. Shit.

I dropped it off in the morning and the next day I received a letter. From the former owners of this house. They were mad as hell, because they had missed the funeral. Apparently the funeral was on the morning that I had dropped off the card. Oh shit. They asked me why I hadn't given them a call so they could have picked up the card (I don't even have their number. Luckily they didn't have my number either otherwise they would have called me. Dodged a bullet there). They were upset and condescending and calling me irresponsible and selfish.

I didn't do it on purpose and it had been over 4,5 years since I moved in, why in the name of fuck do I still get your mail? What if I was on vacation or in the hospital or god knows what? But I still feel guilty, although my friends and family tell me not to, especially after their shitty letter. There was some more correspondence after this in which they acted like five year olds, but it doesn't change the fact that I was late delivering the card.