We’re both 80 and are pen pals for 68 years — now we finally met

These two 80-year-old pen buddies had been stationary for 68 years, however they lastly discovered a approach to meet.

Patsy Gregory, from England, and Carol-Ann Krause, from New York, each 80, have been writing letters to each other from reverse sides of the Atlantic Ocean since they had been each 12 in 1955.

They found one another at the moment when Gregory was concerned within the UK’s Woman Guides and Krause was within the stateside Woman Scouts.

“Within the Woman Guides, I occurred to get Carol-Ann’s title,” Gregory defined to South West Information Service. “We began writing and we by no means stopped. It’s so simple as that.”

“We’ve at all times remembered one another on our marriage ceremony anniversaries and at Christmas and stuff like that. And we’ve nonetheless continued corresponding even now,” mentioned Krause.

They’d write at the very least one letter each two months to one another, Gregory mentioned, speaking about college, who they went out with and what was new of their lives.

Over the previous 68 years, the 2 ladies by no means stopped writing — exchanging, they estimate, greater than 800 letters between them — and even went by means of related life phases on the identical time, together with getting married only one 12 months aside and every giving start to a few youngsters.

“It was simply issues like that,” Gregory defined. “It was simply as if I knew her all my life, however we simply by no means met.”

However as her eightieth birthday approached on June 6, Gregory confessed to her daughter, Steph Calam, that she at all times wished to go to Krause, who now lives in Conway, South Carolina.

Her daughter used social media to trace down Krause’s household and requested if they’d be considering a meet-up — to which they mentioned sure, in fact.

“I used to be more than pleased to take her up on the supply. Our birthdays are solely separated by a month,” Krause mentioned.

After listening to that, Gregory’s household stunned her on her eightieth birthday with a ticket to South Carolina to lastly have the ability to meet her pen pal on July 14.

“It was fairly emotional — it was pretty,” Gregory mentioned about assembly Krause. “I acknowledged her immediately; she seemed similar to her {photograph}.

“It was simply as if I’d seen her final week as a result of we’d identified of one another for therefore lengthy,” she added.

Krause admitted that she was a bit nervous to lastly meet her pen pal in individual.

“It was emotional,” she mentioned. “I used to be a bundle of nerves.”

Throughout the go to, the 2 chatted for hours about their friendship and loved visiting native sights and going out to eat.

“We did a whole lot of speaking. We went out for fairly a couple of completely different meals in locations that Carol-Ann and her husband loved going to,” Gregory gushed.

However, unusually sufficient, Gregory and Krause aren’t the one pen buddies who’ve saved in contact with one another for years and years.

Final December, Celesta Byrne, who lives within the US, and Geoff Banks, from the UK, received to celebrate their 100th birthdays together with their first video name after writing letters to one another for almost 84 years.

The 2 first started speaking in 1938 once they had been simply 16, sending their first letters throughout 5,000 miles as a part of an academic program to attach US and British college students.