Penfriends-any GNetters have one still/had one?

I also keep in touch with a penfriend from school days so that's about fifty years for me too. We've had holidays together and she's worked in this country so we know one another quite well, but only write once a year now unless something special has happened.

2 friends from teenage penfriends with whom I keep in regular touch. A French girl, daughter of a family friend. We visited, thought of one another as sisters and I intend to visit her asap. She's not happy with new technology so we keep in touch via snail mail. The other is a little Brazilian "sister" who did eventually meet once when she visited London with some friends and loved her as much in person as via our long letters. We're all still Facebook friends, as well as her niece, the family of the friend who came over with her and various other mutual friends and acquaintances. She went through a really bad life period a few months ago and it was so useful to be able to keep in touch, sending her online letters cheering her up, knowing that they would arrive almost as soon as they were sent, rather than having to wait and worry for several days to hear from her.

I've always had penfriends and still have one snail-mail pal in America. We've been writing in the old fashioned way for about 15 years now, and will continue to as long as we both have the strength to go to the post office.
But I must admit I prefer email pals these days and have two in Australia, one in London, one in Canada, and a few very occasional ones. It's getting hard to find decent email pals; so many websites are to do with money/sex/dodgy goings on. I'm very wary now.
If any of you know anyone who would like a reliable email pal, please let me know? Thanks.

I have a Swedish pen friend - we first met in 1969 aged 16 and have met several times since. We exchanged letters in the past, now we email and Facebook. We have stayed close friends, linked our families and countries together in so many ways and helped each other through difficult times. She is very important to me.

I've had a pen friend for over 45 years now. We still keep in touch and have visited each other a few times.

P.s. My pen friend is Swedish, too.

Yes I have had an American penal for 52 years now.We have shared many ups and downs.

When I was a new mum in 1976 I used to buy Mother and Baby magazine. They had a penfriend section and I started writing to a Welsh lady who also had young children. We are still writing now, 41 years later. Both grannies now. So much of our lives have been shared yet we have never met.

I had two one in Versailles and one in Quebec the schools used to encourage us to write to French speakers as a way to improve our french ,this was in Primary school in the early 60's

Just saw the pen friends thread. I had one in Burma and she asked if I would send her some make up - she italicised and said what colours she wanted. It cost my poor mum quite a bit. She sent me a Burmese ruby which I managed to lose.
Also had a hood looking French one called John Pierre something or other. I sent him a photo and he never wrote again ?. My dad said he wouldn't as I'd just had a perm. No wonder I've got issues with self esteem!?

Wrote for many of my school years to a Yoshiaki Harada from Yamaguchi City in Japan ...it was good to hear all the Japanese folklore and tell him about ours in the UK ! His favourite thing I sent him was a copy of the poem 'If' which he thought was fantastic ! I had a girl penpal in Leipzig, Marlene Schrotder, which was then East Germany ......she sent me photos of 'beautiful Leipzig' ...all grey apartment blocks ! and another as mad as I was, from Canada,,,can't remember her name ! Never met any of them, but still wonder what happened to them all !.....I did look up Yoshiaki once but that name an surname is very popular in Yamaguchi City ......there are thousands of them ! Used to spend all my pocket money on stamps !

I've a Japanese penpal I've had for over 30 years now. We've never met but I've seen photos of her 2 kids (as babies, toddlers, kids and now teenagers and now about to embark on careers of their own).

When she was at school her English was ok (sadly my Japanese is non existent!) but she then got a job working at Honda where no one wrote or spoke English and her letters became hilarious trying to decode what she was trying to say (translation packages are a law unto themselves!).

We send small Birthday and Christmas presents each year (this year I've to send some Tunnocks Caramel Logs as she loves those!). We also send postcards - hers have come from Oz, Hawaii, Singapore and I try and send from Europe when I'm there with images of Paris, Berlin etc.

One day I WILL travel to Japan to meet her and her family). She told me her husband's name once but refers to him as "him" (probably because I couldn't spell it in Japanese lol!)

Would encourage any child to have one - it puts a new light on another country including lifestyle, wildlife etc

When she was younger she sent me a photo of her dog (I had a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and dogs in Japan were considered a rarety if you lived in the city). Many years later DH and I were looking at getting a dog. I started researching breeds and one little dog jumped off the screen at me...the Japanese Shiba Inu. The same dog she had owned all those years ago! Our wee lad is now 14 but still friendly and independent as ever. I may never have discovered this breed had it not been for my penpal and for that, I'm grateful

I had a French penfriend from the age of 12 or so. I stayed with her when I was 15 and attended a French school for a month. Had a crush on a French boy who chatted me up in the playground and when 20 "engineered" my teaching year to be in the same town so we could meet up again. Got engaged to him, but my French penfriend told me it wouldn't last. Elle avait bien raison. I came back to England, lucky escape. The follies of youth!

I used to have a penfriend in Sweden many years ago but we lost touch in 1965! When the Web started up, I decided to do a search.

The first night I located the town where she had lived and found an email link where I told my story. The next night, I received a response directing me to another website where I repeated my action.

The following night I received a response confirming my information and saying that they had found my penfriend. The following night I received an email from my penfriend!

I'm actually in touch with her sister on Facebook now and Facebook has just informed me that today is the eighth anniversary of our meeting on Facebook!

Remembering the late 40's when nearly everyone in our class was encouraged to have a penpal. I had three - one in the USA who I wrote to for about four years till she got married and so our lovely letters and photos changed somewhat and eventually with the start of her family, we seemed to have little in common at that time and the correspond ence stopped. Have often wondered about her since. Also a French penfriend who, to my horror, replied in French so I had to get a friend to translate - that didn't last long! However, my dear late Dutch penfriend and I exchanged visits over 50 years with lots of lovely presents and interesting news about our families and life. Really missed her letters. No penfriends now but happy memories of looking forward to receiving their letters.

I have had a French pen-friend for 50 years. I visited her aged 13 (my parents put me on a plane and the French family met me off it in Paris). We have visited each other many, many times. She was my bridesmaid in 1978 and I was hers last year. We are the best of friends and share so many happy memories. My love of France is down to her.

Such sad news. . . . .my dear penfriend died last Friday. Sigh! DH and I were mentioned in the family announcement. His niece, who lived with us when studying English then met and married an Englishman, lives not too far from us and have offered us a lift tomorrow ready for funeral on Monday. We were going to drive but glad not to have to. Will stay with my god daughter-pen friend's youngest daughter-and come back Tuesday. We've shared so many happy occasions down the years, holidays together, visits, weddings, baptisms, first communions but this is the first funeral. End of an era.

So sorry to hear this Newquay , as you say, it's the end of an era and you've had a wonderful friendship and many happy memories to hold on to.

I'm sorry for your loss, Newquay.

Glad you are able to attend the funeral Newquay I am sorry for your loss. Your posts have illustrated what a beautiful friendship you sustained across the years.

Thank you all. I've posted elsewhere about the funeral. It was a lovely tribute to a lovely man. So glad we could go. I just feel so sad at the end of a long era. And grateful too.