We place a lot of blind trust in the United States Postal Service when we attach a stamp on an envelope and drop it in a box. We expect our missives to arrive at its destination in a timely fashion.

But, sometimes those missives go astray.Like in the case of Dorothy Muthard's letter to Bella Cucina. The Palmerton woman purchased a Bella Cucina temperature-controlled serving station before Christmas. When she took everything out of the box, she found a coupon for a $10 mail-in rebate. She immediately filled it out, put it in a business letter-size envelope with a 44-cent stamp and addressed it to Bella Cucina in Memphis, Tennessee.Knowing things like this takes time, Dorothy was not very concerned about not receiving her rebate yet. But she never imagined getting the response she did.On Friday, Feb. 4, she received an envelope from Darlene Frohnheiser in Jim Thorpe. Inside the envelope was Dorothy's original envelope and letter requesting a rebate from Bella Cucina with a note from Darlene. The note said, "Sweetie, I hope you got your mail back from me. So sorry your mail came to my house. This is something to show the TIMES NEWS, to show how our mail does not go through. God Bless, Darlene."Dorothy was very surprised by the whole event. She was curious as to how such a thing could have happened. So she took both envelopes to the Aquashicola post office, where she had dropped her letter to Bella Cucina in the outside mail box back in December. The post office clerk pointed out the stamped ID where the letter had been received at the U.S. Postal Service distribution center in Lehigh Valley on Dec. 22 at 3 p.m. A bar code was stamped on the bottom with an Ebervale, PA Zip code number, not even a Jim Thorpe Zip code bar, which are both, obviously, no where near Memphis, Tennessee.Then there is the time frame. According to the stamped dates, it took 43 days for Dorothy's letter to go from Allentown to Jim Thorpe, a distance of about 34 miles. She wishes her letter could talk and tell her where it's been all this time because she certainly knows it never made it to Memphis, Tennessee. It will probably forever remain a mystery.Dorothy is also not very happy.The deadline date for the $10 rebate from Bella Cucina has now come and gone. She has her doubts the post office will give her the $10 she lost out on. She has been encouraged to resubmit her request with copies of both envelopes to explain why it was late and maybe Bella Cucina will honor it. She says she just might do that.In the meantime, she is very grateful to Darlene for sending her rebate request back to her so she won't sit and wonder why she never got her rebate."You know that saying about the mail? 'Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds?' So much for that," she chuckles.