My Turn: Savoring a friendship that blossomed in letters

It was early 1953. I was 12 years old and sent away 25 cents and a self-addressed stamped envelope to the International Friendship League for a pen pal, who I knew would be from England.

After about eight weeks, I got my first letter. My pen pal and I were only months apart in age, and her name was Janice Smith. She lived outside of London and we eventually sent each other souvenirs. The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II occurred on June 2, 1953, and Janice sent me souvenirs from that. She was so excited about it!

I was growing up in the Bronx, so in return I sent her trinkets from New York City.

We kept writing through the years and even spoke on the phone a few times. I remember I could barely understand her accent. As an adult I received her wedding pictures and became a godparent to her first son, David. As an adult David joined the Royal Air Force and is now married with children of his own.

When I traveled to London to attend a nursing conference in 1982, I took the train north to Felixstowe. The village was having an Anti-Nuke Rally and Parade that day. Janice was very much into it; I was politically naive. Interesting!

Ten years later, she sailed to New York on the QE2 with her family and we had a lovely day driving through the streets of Manhattan until dinner at a restaurant.

We’ve supported each other through good times and bad — marriages, divorces, births, deaths and illnesses. We’ve never stopped exchanging cards and letters.

Janice’s letter to me in 2012 contained a lovely surprise. She’d written a poem to commemorate our then 58-year pen friendship, and here it is:

Fun-filled letters, and sometimes heartbreaking,

Interests varied and wide,

Far away from each other we live

Together we keep in touch as the

Years fly by …

Everlasting is our friendship and

International,

Gatherings are infrequent!! Twice but

Heartfelt and warming,

The twice we have met were wonderful times,

Years are passing quickly now,

Each faster than the one before,

Although we do not meet as

Reality does not allow,

surely and hopefully —

Our pen friendship will know many, many more years.

Now it’s 2020. I live in Glen Head. Janice still lives in Felixstowe, north of London, near Sharon, her daughter. She still calls me "Dee Dee." We are both weathering the restrictions of the pandemic, and grateful to be untouched currently.

Janice abhors computers and emails, so she sends letters "across the pond" with strongly worded views of the latest political situation in several countries. She loves her queen. Our relationship has never been boring.

Diane Doxey,

Glen Head