The write stuff! We’ve been pen pals for 75 years
WHEN 13-year-old Margaret Gordon received a mysterious letter from across the Atlantic Ocean, the world was still in the grip of the Second World War.
But the simple message from a curious American teenager would mark the start of a friendship spanning 4,000 miles and three quarters of a century.
The Scots schoolgirl, now Margaret Jackson, began writing to Alice Jacobs in 1944 after her father invited an American airman to stay in their Edinburgh home.
Mrs Jackson, 87, a former primary school teacher, and her penpal, now Mrs Brandon, 90, a retired home economics teacher, are still in touch after 75 years.
Mrs Jackson became curious about life in America when her father, Ian Gordon, invited US Airman Bob Stanchfield to stay with his family in Portobello.
Keen to make friends in America, she asked him to pass her details on to any girls at home who would be interested in becoming her pen pal.
Only two months later, a letter arrived from Alice in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The pair instantly connected, talking about everything from fashion to boys.
The women were both born in February, both married in 1950 and their second children were born on the same day.
After 36 years of exchanging letters they finally met face-toface in 1980.
Mrs Jackson, a mother of four, said she was nervous before she and her late husband, Charlie, travelled to visit Mrs Brandon and her husband Jerry in Florida.
Mrs Jackson, who still lives in Edinburgh, said: ‘I know Alice was panicked thinking what if we didn’t get along. But we got on better together than we do with our own families.
‘We would be talking up until around 1.30am and when I’d go to bed my husband would say, “What do you find to talk about?’’’
The pair still write to each other occasionally but now they keep in regular contact on the phone and on Skype.
Mrs Jackson added: ‘There can’t be many people who can say they’ve been pen pals for 75 years. I’m delighted I’ve got a lifelong friend out of it all.’