Cross-Atlantic pen pals are reunited

TWO pen pals who have been corresponding over the Atlantic Ocean for more than seven decades — with hundreds of letters travelling east and west — have been reunited.

Dee Gray (83), of East Bawtry Road, Wickersley, has been a pen pal with Charlotte Boyd (83), of Duluth in Minnesota, in the USA for 72 years.

This week, they came face-to-face again as Charlotte spent ten days in Rotherham — one of a handful of times the pair have met up.

Charlotte also got the chance to meet Margaret Barker (82), of Killamarsh, who has been writing to her and her late twin sister Charlene for 72 years.

Dee said that the long correspondence began in 1944 when she was 12 and her Rotherham school received a copy of a Duluth newspaper asking for people to become pen pals with people from the Minnesota city.

Dee chose Charlotte from the list.

Charlotte’s sister also started writing to Margaret and it was only a few years ago that Charlotte found out that her own pen pal lived in the same area.

Dee said that she enjoyed writing to Charlotte from the very beginning.

“We had come through the war and it was lovely to receive a letter,” she said.

Dee said that Charlotte’s letters often included items such as stockings and sweets from her mother’s shop — real treats in the rationing years.

For Charlotte, writing to Dee helped her discover more about the UK, and in particular the Royal Family.

Charlotte said: “It was far away but we looked up everything we could to find out about England in the hope that some day we would actually meet.”

They first got together in the early 1990s when Dee travelled to the USA and Charlotte visited here in 1999 for the first time.

She said: “I don’t want to say Rotherham was quaint but I was impressed at how tight-knit the community is, with the flowers and window boxes.

“You have saved a lot of your history in your architecture.

“But I have to listen carefully and ask for a repeat because I don’t catch the accent here.”

Charlotte, who has lived in Duluth since 1970, has two grandchildren, was a stenographer and secretary for many years and later began to offer voluntary help to Vietnamese people.

Dee’s career has included work as an ice cream seller, tram conductress and in the sewing trade.

The friends agreed that travelling to each other’s countries was something of a culture shock.

Dee said that the USA is “so vast”, while Charlotte said: “England is about the size of Alabama, and certainly more populated.

“Trying to fit this country and all its history into Alabama is quite perverse.”

Dee said that the pair now wrote more frequently than ever — about once a month — while Charlotte revealed she carries Dee’s latest letter around with her so she can re-read it.

She added: “We are part of each other’s families and have shared each other’s lives.”

Dee, who has six grandchildren, said that young people these days seemed to prefer using electronic media such as Skype rather than writing letters.

But she prefers pen and paper, adding: “I like to get a letter.”

Mrs Barker, who wrote mainly to Charlotte’s twin sister, spent her 82nd birthday recently with Dee and Charlotte and said that writing letters had been a pleasure.

Margaret said: “We used write regularly about what we had been doing and it was like reading a story.

“It’s sad that people don’t write letters now.”