Pen pals meet for first time in 68 years!
By Joan Janzen
What would it be like to meet someone for the first time after having corresponded for 68 years? Fay Fairs from Eston answers that question through her first-hand experience. “My friend and I have been pen pals for 68 years and finally just met for the time,” she said.
LONG TIME PALS! Fay Fairs in the back; Myrna Landers in front. These two ladies met for the first time, after being pen pals for 68 years! SUBMITTED BY FAY FAIRS
Her story began in 1954 when 11-year-old Fay sent her name to The Family Herald newspaper. “There was a kid’s page, and you could send your name to the paper, and they would connect you with a pen pal,” she explained. Fay received the address of 12-year-old Myrna Coffin from Quebec.
“We clicked immediately and began a lengthy correspondence,” Fay said. Fay grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan, and Myrna’s dad was a carpenter. The school girls exchanged long letters about once a month, depending on how often their mothers gave them an envelope and a five-cent stamp.
The girls had both talked about becoming nurses, so it wasn’t surprising that they enrolled in nurses’ training after graduating from high school - Myrna in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and Fay in Regina. During this busy time of their lives, the girls corresponded less frequently.
“We graduated at about the same time and entered the workforce as RN’s,” Fay explained. Fay moved to London, Ontario, where she was employed and met her husband before moving back to Eston. Fay was married in 1965, and Myrna married in 1967.
Throughout the years, the girls exchanged school photos, photos of their graduation from nurses’ training, and wedding photos. “We both began to move around, and our contacts became less frequent, as we both had busy lives,” she said.
Periodically Fay and her husband would travel to Ontario to visit relatives. Although Fay always wanted to visit Myrna in Halifax during one of their visits, it never happened. “We almost met in the ’70s. I knew she was living near Sudbury, but no one in the tiny town knew who she was or where she could be,” Fay explained. It turns out Myrna’s husband was doing construction at a nearby mine, and they were living on the mine property, so the young women never did meet.
In 1980, Myrna’s husband passed away, and Fay’s husband was not well. “Once her husband died, she got busier because she had two little boys to look after, and we were busy on the farm. She moved a couple more times, so we lost track of each other,” Fay explained. In the late 1980’s Myrna sent off a letter to her pen pal, but it was returned, marked “Person Unknown.”
Throughout the years, Fay was reminded of her pen pal whenever Myrna’s birthday would come around, but she didn’t know how to contact her. There were no computers at the time, so her only option was to phone Canada 411. “I didn’t even know what province she had moved to. I phoned about 50 numbers but had no luck at all,” she said. “When I got a computer, I tried a few search engines, but they all came up blank.”
Fay’s luck was about to change in December 2019 when she Googled Myrna’s married name - Myrna Landers. Myrna’s name was listed in two family obituaries, and Fay took a chance and phoned one of the funeral homes.
“The funeral home was very obliging,” she said. “Although they couldn’t give out names and numbers, they phoned the executor, asking them to contact Myrna. The next day I got a call early in the morning. I almost fell out of bed! I couldn’t believe that I was finally talking to her!”
During their conversation, Fay told Myrna she had been on a bus tour to the Atlantic provinces earlier that year and had taken a city tour of Halifax. “I found out we had been about three blocks from her house! And I didn’t even know she was living in Halifax!” Fay exclaimed. “And to think that I was so close to her twice!”
Although they weren’t able to meet during the following two years, they texted almost daily and visited on FaceTime. But in September of 2022, Myrna flew to Calgary to visit family. Myrna’s son drove her to Kindersley, where she met her long-time friend for the first time on September 5th!
“We stood and looked at each other; we couldn’t believe that after all these years, we finally met!” Fay said. “We had a lot of catching up to do.” Myrna’s son laughed, saying the ladies were reminiscing a long way back in time. “We talked for hours; it takes a while to cover 68 years and 30 lost years.”
The two pen pals couldn’t be happier to be corresponding once again. But Fay said she hopes they’ll be able to get together again before another 68 years pass by!