Singaporean, Canadian pen pals finally meet after 43 years

The letters between Michelle Anne Ng and Sonya Clarke Casey forged a friendship that saw them share about their life experiences and secrets

- Raul Dancel Correspondent

They began exchanging letters in 1983, when they were only 12 years old, and kept at it for 43 years.

Yet, even as they wrote to each other all those years, they had never met in person. Not until Ms Michelle Anne Ng, a Singaporean, flew to St John's in Newfoundland, Canada, on Oct 17 to see Ms Sonya Clarke Casey.

“We realised that visiting each other may no longer be a dream. We can make our sign-off dream ‘Hope some day we will meet’ come true,” Ms Ng told The Straits Times.

“I mean, I’m still young. So, if not now, when? Seize the day because with age catching up with us, travelling long distance may not be as easy as someone who is in her 30s or 40s,” she said.

Both 55 now, Ms Ng and Ms Casey were paired through the International Youth Service (IYS) in 1983, when Ms Ng was in Primary 6 and Ms Casey was in Grade 5.

IYS is a now-defunct Finnish service that matched those aged 10 to 20 as pen pals or “penfriends”, people who wrote to one another and sent letters across vast distances through postal mail.

When they met in Newfoundland, they did an interview together with Canada’s public broadcaster CBC. Ms Ng said then: “I was struggling a bit with my English, and one way to improve was through writing. One of the teachers encouraged us to have pen pals.”

She said she found Ms Casey’s name in the “looking for pen pals” section of a magazine - it was likely placed there by IYS.

Ms Casey still remembers the very first letter she received from Ms Ng. “She had written on the outside of the envelope ‘First Letter’, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is golden!” she told CBC.

What followed was a long and faithful exchange: 43 years of letters, Christmas cards, birthday greetings, newspaper clippings and small gifts a friendship that has survived the decline of postal mail.

Ms Ng said she had other pen pals, but Ms Casey was the one who stuck around.