Women from Ross, Australia have been pen pals since 1966
In fifth grade, my English class at Emsworth Elementary School was working on proper letter writing. One day our teacher, Mrs. Warren, passed around a list of names and addresses of boys and girls from all over the world.
We would write our first letter to someone our own age many miles away. I chose Roslyn Mitchell from Kurri Kurri, Australia.
Little did I know in 1966 that it would be the beginning of a friendship that would last a lifetime.
Most of my classmates stopped writing to their pen pals after fifth grade. But Roslyn and I kept writing.
She would tell me about school and her family. Her father was a coal miner, her mom a homemaker. She had an older sister, Janet.
We learned that we shared the same birthday, although Roslyn was a year older than me. I was 11 and she was 12 when the letters started. We exchanged Christmas presents every year.
The years went by and the letters continued. Then, in our late teens and early 20s we lost touch for about five or six years. Roslyn had gotten engaged and married. I didn’t have her address.
Eventually, I was able to locate Rosyln through my job at Joy Manufacturing Co., a mining machinery company. Our Australian general manager was able to find her for me and the letters flowed again.
Our friendship continued. Roslyn was divorced and remarried with a daughter named Janelle. I got married and had two children. Roslyn had two more children.
Our kids were close in age. We exchanged photos of our children through the mail and I loved getting the pictures she sent.
One day, my husband
Jim excitedly showed me a newspaper ad, offering half price air fare to Sydney, Australia.
“You’re not going to say no to this,” he told me. “Call Roslyn and make arrangements.”
So, in August of 1991, 25 years after our first letters, I went to Australia for 11 days.
I met Roslyn and her family at the Sydney airport. We walked around downtown Sydney for a while and then drove to their home in Morpeth, two hours away.
Morpeth is wine country. I was impressed by how clean and beautiful everything was.
Roslyn lived in an old, historic section of the town. Many of the houses there, including hers, had metal roofs. I loved the old buildings, especially the train station.
Although it was August, it was fall in Australia. Roslyn, her parents and I
would take day trips. We went to the ocean and visited many nearby picturesque towns. I had a wonderful time.
That trip, 32 years ago, was the one and only time I met Roslyn in person.
We are grandmothers now. The internet came along and with it the advent of email.
It has only been in the last couple of years that we have tried emailing each other. We both still prefer to send letters.
When you have a handwritten letter it’s like having a small piece of that person. I like seeing the stamps on the envelope and the pretty stationery Roslyn writes on.
Our friendship continues — 57 years in the making with no end in sight.