After six decades of friendship fostered by handwritten letters, two pen pals finally met face-to-face for the first time — and the interaction was captured in a now-viral video.
Emily Conn from Pennsylvania and Brenda Stowe from Georgia, both in their late-70s, have been writing to each other since their middle school teachers paired them up as pen pals. Speaking to TODAY.com, they share how they went from exchanging letters about their daily lives through snail mail to meeting decades later.
In an Instagram video posted on Sept. 17, shared by Conn's daughter, Christina Schrecengost, Conn sits at a table with her eyes closed. Then, Stowe comes into the frame, putting her hands around Conn's eyes and speaking to her from behind.
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Conn seemingly doesn't realize who's behind her, saying at one point, "I don't recognize the voice." Stowe continued to speak, finishing her sentence with "bless your heart." That's when Conn exclaims "Brenda!" before turning around, and the longtime friends share a long embrace as they soak each other in.
“Assigned as pen pals in middle school to help learn to write in cursive, they remain close friends over 60 years later. But, on September 15th, they finally got to meet,” Schrecengost’s caption reads.
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Schrecengost helped make their first meeting happen, and shared the in-person interaction on Instagram so her mother's pen pal's family and friends could see the sweet moment as well.
But it quickly became clear that interest extended beyond Brenda's circle, as the Instagram post has since gained over 260,000 likes.
Users have taken to the comments to share their own experiences with pen pals, and how moved they were by Conn and Stowe's timeless friendship.
"Girlhood is forever," one user wrote.
"There’s no age limit on girlhood," another chimed in.
During the early stages of their mutual pen-ship, Conn and Stowe stayed in touch with weekly or monthly letters about their lives.
"I mean, we were really young, so we weren't into much discussion about anything serious," Conn explains to TODAY.com. "'How's school going?' 'How are your grades?' 'How's the weather?' All those non-important things."
"Eventually, over the years, we ended up talking on the phone, and we came to talk about all of the things," she continues. "We talked about jobs and home and weather and, you know, how we were feeling."
Conn says they've being there for each other during "difficult times," including in recent days: Conn has been diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer.
"Brenda had breast cancer at one time, I had it also, and that kind of drew us even closer," she shares. “And then this time in my life, the cancer came back, and it metastasized to a different area ... it’s not that we dwell on the cancer part. We just keep a positive attitude and do our very best to uplift each other and everyone around us and to stay positive.”
Conn calls their friendship "a blessing," adding, "We're always glad to hear each other’s voices and talk one-on-one."
Outside of phone calls, the duo kept in touch through writing letters and never engaged in emails, texts or Zoom calls throughout their decades-long bond.
“I’m not phone savvy, and I don’t think she is either,” Stowe chuckles while telling TODAY.com.
Their lack of savviness, though, led to the special moment when they finally got to see each other's faces in person for the first time.
Conn recalls hearing Stowe's voice in her ear, saying, “When that Southern voice came through, no doubt about it, she was my special friend."
"It was wonderful," Stowe recalls of when she finally got to see her friend. "I had seen pictures of her, but not in a long time. But it was wonderful seeing her. It was just (like seeing) an old friend."
"I feel much closer to her because I put my arms around her and I hugged, and we both, we cried together, and it just, I just think it made our friendship even stronger," Stowe adds.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
