After sixty years of friendship, nurtured by handwritten letters, two pen pals finally met in person for the first time, and the interaction was captured in a now-viral video.
Emily Conn of Pennsylvania and Brenda Stowe of Georgia, both in their late 70s, have been writing to each other since their high school teachers set them up as pen pals. Speaking to TODAY.com, they share how they went from exchanging letters about their daily lives through the mail to meeting up decades later.
In an Instagram video posted on Sept. 17 and shared by Conn’s daughter, Christina Schrecengost, Conn sits at a table with her eyes closed. Then, Stowe comes into view, cups her hands over Conn’s eyes, and speaks to her from behind.
Conn appears unaware of who’s standing behind her, at one point saying, “I don’t recognize the voice.” Stowe continues speaking, finishing her sentence with, “God bless you.” That’s when Conn calls out, “Brenda!” before turning and the old friends share a long embrace as they take each other in.
“Assigned as pen pals in high school to learn how to write in cursive, they are still good friends 60 years later. But on September 15th, they finally met,” Schrecengost’s caption reads.
Schrecengost helped organize their first meeting and shared the personal interaction on Instagram so that the family and friends of her mother’s pen pal could also enjoy this beautiful moment.
But it soon became clear that the interest extended beyond Brenda’s circle of friends: the Instagram post has now received more than 260,000 likes.
Users shared their own experiences with pen pals in the comments and how touched they were by Conn and Stowe’s timeless friendship.
“Girlhood is forever,” one user wrote.
“There is no age limit for girls,” said another.
During the early stages of their pen-toting relationship, Conn and Stowe kept in touch by writing weekly or monthly letters about their lives.
“I mean, we were really young, so we weren’t really interested in having serious conversations,” Conn explained to TODAY.com. “‘How’s school going?’ ‘How are your grades?’ ‘What’s the weather like?’ All that trivial stuff.”
“Eventually, over the years, we got on the phone and we got together and talked about everything,” she continues. “We talked about jobs and home and the weather and, you know, how we were feeling.”
Conn says they’ve been there for each other through “tough times,” including the past few days: Conn was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.
“Brenda had breast cancer, I had it, and that brought us even closer together,” she said. “And then at one point in my life the cancer came back, and it spread to another area … it’s not like we dwell on the cancer part. We just keep a positive attitude and do the best we can to lift each other up and everyone around us and stay positive.”
Conn calls their friendship “a blessing,” adding, “We’re always happy to hear each other’s voices and talk one-on-one.”
Outside of phone calls, the two kept in touch through letters. Throughout their decades-long relationship, they never exchanged thoughts via email, text or Zoom calls.
“I’m not very good on the phone, and I don’t think she is either,” Stowe laughed, telling TODAY.com.
However, their lack of intelligence led to them meeting each other in real life for the first time.
During the surprise visit, Conn remembers hearing Stowe’s voice in her ear, saying, “When that Southern voice came through, she was my special friend, without a doubt.”
“It was amazing,” Stowe recalled of finally seeing her friend. “I had seen pictures of her, but hadn’t in a long time. But it was amazing to see her. It was just (like) seeing an old friend.”
“I feel so much closer to her because I put my arms around her and hugged her. We cried together and I think it just made our friendship stronger,” Stowe added.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
