DailySusan Humor Blog

PENPALS FOR 56 YEARS

In the “Aw, Ain’t That Sweet?” department, consider the friendship between Anita Oser of Cullowhee, N.C., and Carol Vogt of Blair, Neb. The two of them became penpals as children and finally met in person for the first time last week after 56 years of writing.

Anita is a librarian and geography teacher at Western Carolina University. Carol is a farm wife west of Blair. In 1948, as a sixth-grader, Carol had put in a request for a penpal to a national children’s magazine, and Anita wrote to her after noticing they shared a birthday, Jan. 21.

In all that time, they just wrote letters. They had never talked on the phone, and Anita had never even sent a picture of herself to Carol. For various reasons, a meeting just never worked out. Recently, they had a date set but then Carol’s husband sustained an injury, and then the hurricanes interfered with trip plans.

Finally, Anita took advantage of her university’s fall break to come to Nebraska. Their picture is just adorable in the Washington County Pilot-Tribune this week.

I suppose the Internet has made parents wary of the idea of having a ‘’penpal,’’ since the cyber-penpal your child THINKS is Tiffany in the next town who likes Johnny Depp, soccer and pizza might REALLY be Delbert, a bearded, beer-guzzling pedophile from South Dallas.

But these penpals of more than a half-century shared something beautiful and good. How does the old song go? “Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver, and the other’s gold.’’
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Prayer request: Lord, only You know who is going to buy Steve and Tammy’s house in Gillette, Wyo., that’s been for sale for so long. Only You can free up the finances and bring everything together to make the sale happen. We have faith, Lord! We know it is Your will to bless them in Your perfect timing. We turn to You to ask that it happen soon. ‘Til then, may the family practice steadiness and patience. (Hebrews 10:23)