80-year-olds Patsy Gregory and Carol-Ann Krause have been swapping letters since 1955 after they grew to become woman scouts on reverse sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
The pair went on to ship and obtain greater than 800 correspondences, all the time remembering one another’s birthdays, wedding ceremony anniversaries, and Christmas.
However they by no means met in individual till Patsy advised her daughter Steph that she’d all the time wished to go to Carol-Ann, now dwelling in Conway, South Carolina.
So her household stunned her with a ticket to the USA on her birthday in June this 12 months which allowed her to fly 4,000 miles for the overdue get-together.
Patsy, who shared a heartwarming embrace with Carol-Ann on July 14th, mentioned she had acknowledged her as quickly as she opened her door.
“It was fairly emotional, it was beautiful,” Patsy from Lancashire County, England mentioned in an interview. “I didn’t really feel any nerves, I used to be excited. It was nice to have the ability to meet her finally.”
“It was simply as if I’d seen her final week as a result of we’d identified of one another for thus lengthy.”
America’s Carol-Ann, who was approached by Steph in regards to the go to earlier than Patsy’s birthday, mentioned she was somewhat extra anxious about their first assembly in individual.
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Patsy was simply 12 when she started writing to Carol-Ann, with the pair discussing their day-to-day experiences. Carol-Ann was dwelling in Buffalo, New York on the time, and Patsy admitted she had been notably intrigued in regards to the teen’s life within the USA.
“Within the woman guides, I occurred to get Carol-Ann’s title,” Patsy recounted, utilizing the British time period for the woman scouts. “We began writing and we by no means stopped. It’s so simple as that.”
“It was extraordinarily attention-grabbing to find out about her life. The climate, after all, was a giant function. She was dwelling subsequent to the Nice Lakes.”
“We might write about what had occurred within the day, college, something that was occurring, the place we have been going, who we went out with, or no matter. We have been simply sharing information, as you’d with a good friend subsequent door,” mentioned Patsy.
As their lives modified, so did the contents of their letters. Patsy was married in 1964, and Carol-Ann adopted only a 12 months later. They each had three youngsters every, and although they carried on via the a long time, sending a complete of 400 letters at the very least per individual, they by no means met nose to nose.
Patsy mentioned she had talked about to her daughter Steph that she’d all the time wished to fulfill Carol-Ann earlier than her eightieth birthday on June sixth, after which her daughter used social media to trace down her pen pal’s household in America to ask if they might be taken with organizing a meet-up stateside.
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“Her daughter mentioned she wished to shock her mom with a present of coming to the USA to see me because it’s one thing that she has all the time wished to do,” mentioned Carol-Ann. “I used to be more than pleased to take her up on the supply. Our birthdays are solely separated by a month.”
In the course of the keep, she mentioned the pair had chatted for hours about their friendship whereas additionally taking within the native sights and going out for meals at locations Carol-Ann and her husband frequented—all as if that they had solely been separated by just a few years, such was the energy of their friendship.
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