Penpals meet ..40 years after their first letter
Pair began exchange at age of 10
TWO penpals have finally met, 40 years after first exchanging letters across the Atlantic.
Carol Szyszlyk and Robin Bolton were 10 when they joined a scheme linking British and US children.
Now both 50, they met for the first time at the weekend in Cambridge, where Carol now lives. She said: “It’s amazing, I’m speechless.”
They were paired after Carol applied via a magazine and Robin a US TV show. Robin, then in Memphis, Tenn- essee, said: “The card said, ‘You’ve been paired with Carol of Suffolk, England’. I’d never heard of it.”
The girls exchanged hundreds of letters over the years, but lost touch when Robin’s family moved.
After failing to find Carol online in 2009, Robin sent a letter to her 1970s address. Carol’s dad still lived there and the pair reunited online, learning they were both married with three children.
Robin said: “To know relationships can be formed without being present, it is remarkable.”