A social connection
Facebook helps rekindle a friendship from 40 years ago
The world has become a smaller place thanks to social media sites like Facebook, which help connect people around the globe.
For Cornwall resident Nancy Wilson, Facebook brought her a blast from her past.
On New Year’s Eve, Wilson was looking at a Facebook group page and noticed an alarming number of users were from her home province.
She posted a message to the group asking if any of her fellow “Ontario girls” living on P.E.I. wanted to get together for a coffee.
At around 11 p.m., there was a notification on her phone. Someone had responded to her request to get together.
“I thought, ‘that was nice, I’m making a friend’,” Wilson said.
Pam Bissonette, the woman who responded to the post, was no stranger to Wilson at all.
As it turns out, the two women were friends who went through public school together in Richmond Hill, Ont., from kindergarten to Grade 10.
“I just went ‘Oh my God!’ and she went ‘Oh my God!’,” said Bissonette once she figured out the connection. “We talked on the phone and decided we’d meet up.”
Once they met and started playing catch-up, the reacquainted friends realized they had a number of things in common.
Bissonette and her husband, Craig, moved to the Island from Ontario in July 2017 and Wilson and her fiancée, Grant Bouchey, arrived two months later.
“We both decided we wanted a change. We gave up our jobs, we sold our houses, we came down here on a leap of faith that we’re going to make a life,” Bissonette said.
“We have bought a house. They are still looking. She might end up moving right down the road from me.”
“Well, I’m working on it,” Wilson chimed in.
“Could you imagine?” Bissonette asked? “We could just walk to each other’s houses.”
The women are having fun reconnecting and are already making summer plans.
“We’re planning on summer fire pits and introducing our hubbies,” said Wilson, adding they are also both excited because they can share their love of the card game Euchre.
“It’s been fun rehashing the past,” Bissonette said. “Absolutely no contact for 40 years and then we both moved to P.E.I. the same year and then we find each other on this Facebook page, ‘We Love Prince Edward Island’, on New Year’s Eve. So this is how our new year was about to begin — old friends reuniting.”
“It’s been fun rehashing the past. Absolutely no contact for 40 years and then we both moved to P.E.I. the same year and then we find each other on this Facebook page, ‘We Love Prince Edward Island’, on New Year’s Eve. So this is how our new year was about to begin – old friends reuniting.” Pam Bissonette