SUDBURY -- Proving the blessings that come with living in a small town in northern Ontario, one man received a birthday card from his brother in the mail -- despite it having no proper address.

Since childhood, Richard and Bishop Racicot have been best friends. With Richard living in Sudbury and Bishop in Kakabeka Falls, the pandemic has put a stop to their bi-annual visits, so letters and phone calls are all they have to stay in touch.

"He's the son I never had," said Richard, the elder of the two by approximately 10 years. "He means so much to me. I tear up often when I think of him."

With his baby brother's birthday approaching, Richard decided to surprise him with a card by mail, something he would typically deliver in person. However, worried about it arriving late, Richard sent the card in a rush, forgetting both his brother's name and proper address.

'To the brother I love'

"I just addressed the card as 'to the brother I love' and then put his address as Kakabeka Falls and I didn't put my return address on it and he got it!" he said.

From the Sudbury area himself, his brother Bishop has been living in the small community of Kakabeka Falls, just outside Thunder Bay, for nearly 30 years. It's due to that true small-town atmosphere that the birthday card ended up in the right home.

"So I didn't open the card. So I called the lady at the post office who I knew through church and she was laughing," said Bishop. "She was saying they received the envelope that morning and they had no idea who it was but sounds like it may be for me because they met my brother several times through church."

That woman was his friend, Cheri Biloski. While the card did have a postal code on it, Biloski said that only narrowed it down to about 500 homes.

"We get letters like that quite often addressed to mom or dad or auntie, which is why it's very important for people to put the full address and full name of people," Biloski said.

Brainstorming session

With a driver confused about where to bring the letter, she asked him to leave it with her, as she brainstormed who it could be. That's when it hit her.

"I said 'deliver it to Bishop Racicot,'" Biloski said.

"Yeah really?" she quotes the driver as saying.

"Yup. It's his. It will be is," she said to the driver.

"How do you know?" asked the driver.

"Cause his birthday is coming up and he always talks about his brother," Biloski said.

Bishop said he was told that it was his personality, which matched the style of writing on the envelope, that helped Biloski piece together who the card was destined for.

"I think I'm just going to keep it and put it in a frame," Bishop said. "It turns out there's no money in, it but I know my brother loves me."