14 DAY TRIAL // In today's technology-ridden world, you can hardly find someone who still uses real paper and a real pen to write a letter. Nowadays, we are all talking on the phone, sending emails and faxes, chatting on Skype or other such programs.
It seems that cursive writing is slowly becoming obsolete. I confess I hardly remember when I last wrote a page on a blank sheet of paper, except for the shopping list perhaps.
However, two nice ladies, who live on different continents, kept a steady tradition of sending handwritten letters to each other once in a while.
Nona Avery from Sheffield, England, has been corresponding with Alice Powers from Ohio, USA since 1942. This means they have been penpals for 72 years, and they are still corresponding even today. Even if they are miles away from each other, the women are lifelong friends and regularly share thoughts and ideas through their letters.
Twice a month, 84-year-old Nona Avery sits down, picks up her pen and writes a letter to her best friend on the other side of the world.
The correspondence between the two women began in 1942 when Nona, aged 12, saw some adverts in a fiction magazine for girls seeking for pen-friends from all over the world. One advert caught her attention.
“It was from a girl called Alice Powers who was also 12 and lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. It sounded really exotic and so far away, almost like another world,” the now elderly woman recalls, according to the Mirror.
She immediately wrote a letter to the unknown girl and after a two-week wait, she finally received a reply. Since then, Nona and Alice kept writing to each other twice a month, discussing their lives.
They discovered they had so many things in common, as they liked the same books, films and magazines. It wasn't hard for them to keep in touch and they never lost interest in writing to each other.
Through their correspondence, the two friends have witnessed all the life changes they experienced throughout the years and they have given comfort and support to each other.
“I know Alice’s letters will comfort me. Our correspondence shares the sadness, the happiness and everything in between,” says Nona.
After 45 years of writing letters, the two women finally met face to face in 1987, when Alice flew to England for the first time. Nona’s return trip to Ohio took place in 1991.
Today, they still write to each other by hand, as usual. Computers and other technology didn't convinced them to give up on their old habit.
“Writing is much more personable. There are quicker ways to communicate but why change the habit of a lifetime?” they say.