small world

The wonder of the Internet was brought home to me again yesterday. I sat down for a moment while cooking supper and looked at my emails. I had a facebook notice from a young lady asking whether or not I was the "liz" who was pen pals with her mum.

Back in the 70's there was a TV show called "Big Blue Marble." You could write into the show, yes, write on paper and then post the letter via the USPS, to obtain the name of a potential pen pal from overseas. I requested a pal in England and that is how my correspondence with Donna began. We wrote letters back and forth for years until, when I graduated from college, I was able to afford a trip to England. I hopped a train in London and traveled out to Hertsfordshire and met her and her two daughters, toddlers at the time. While I was there we spent a wonderful couple of days together, chatting and drinking LOTS of tea. Her parents and sisters came over one night and picked my brain about all things American.

Once I came back, we exchanged a few more letters and I learned she was engaged. She was divorced and a single mum when we met in person on my trip. She was now expecting a third child. The letters came further apart until they stopped all together....life intervenes at times.

So, having Donna's daughter, the youngest of her three, contact me was sort of a miracle. Donna had been thinking of me too and had tried to find me several times. On a lark she had her daughter look for me on facebook and voila....Twenty years have melted away thanks to technology.

We've exchanged lengthy emails already and I hope that we can resume our long distance friendship.