These pensioners have been pen pals for 70 years!

These pensioners have been pen pals for the past seven decades.

Barbara Finch, from Didcot, England, struck up a friendship with New Zealander Elizabeth Martin when the two were just 14 years old. "Seventy years is a very long time now and it's been wonderful to have her as a friend,” says Barbara.

"I don't even have any friends in the UK who I've known as long as Elizabeth. Our friendship is very special to me and rather remarkable when you stop and think about it.

 I lost my husband and my son, and she’s lost her husband and her daughter to cancer.”

The two started mailing each other in November 1947 when Barbara, who was a pupil at Boxhill Secondary Modern School in Abingdon, had an exchange teacher from New Zealand who thought it might be a good idea to help her students to find pen pals.

Unsure at first, Barbara and her friends eventually decided to take her up on her offer. But she and Elizabeth were the only pen pals to form a long-term friendship.

"I wasn’t sure about it at first but, as girls do, me and my friends said, 'I'll do it if you will'.

"Several people wrote to me originally but Elizabeth was the only one who kept it up.

"Back then airmail used to take several days to reach New Zealand and normal post could take weeks,” she says.

Now both 84, the adorable pair continue to send weekly emails to keep each other up to speed with their daily lives.

"We email each other now rather than write letters, partly because it's quicker but mostly because it's free,” she says.

Barbara, who’s a proud great-grandmother, has kept every single letter and card her pen pal has sent her over the years.

And after finally meeting up for the first time, the two have since crossed the globe 15 times to visit each other – Barbara flying to the southern hemisphere 10 times and Elizabeth making the trip up north on five occasions.

“I felt so nervous the first time I went over. For the entire flight, I kept thinking what would happen if we both hated each other?

"It's one thing writing to somebody but something entirely different to meet them in person.

"But I needn't have worried – her family is so welcoming and absolutely wonderful. I fell in love with New Zealand on that trip and have happily gone back since,” says Barbara.

The pair’s families have grown close over the past few decades, with Barbara's grandchildren keeping Elizabeth supplied with family pictures. They’ve even paid her visits on a few occasions.

"The best times are when I have been over to New Zealand. Nothing replaces seeing each other face to face,” Barbara says.

"This is a friendship for a lifetime, and I hope we have a few years of writing left yet.

"And even when I'm gone, my family will have some lovely momentos as I've kept everything she’s ever sent me."

Source: Magazine Features

PHOTO: CATERS/WWW.MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA.