They have been corresponding since they were teenagers. Now the pen pals are both 100 years old. And they continue to keep in touch. On Zoom.
Briton Geoff Banks of Devon England and American Celesta Byrne of New Jersey began writing together in 1938, aged just 16.
They connected through an educational project which aimed to connect British and American students.
– I received a letter from an American girl, we have continued to write to each other ever since, says Geoff SWNS news.
The former engineer wrote faithfully to his pen pal during WWII while serving as a mechanic with the British Air Force in the Pacific.
– There were a couple of years where we struggled to keep in touch, because of the war, he says, but after the war was over, we finally found him.
84 years later, they are still in touch. According to the Guinness Book of Records, pen pals really do world record in correspondence.
They filled the letters with life themselves. Family and everyday life, and of course a little bit about the queen. Queen Elizabeth II.
Digitized friendship
Over the years it became more difficult to write with pen and paper, the grip of the pen was not as good as it used to be, says Geoff. But the two pen pals had a solution to this challenge: email.
They also recently discovered something that made communication even easier. The Zoom communication platform. Now they could both talk and see each other, without having to write!
Both are now getting help setting up on Zoom.
– It’s nice to hear her voice, says Celesta Byrne.
It took 64 years for the two to finally meet. In New York City when Geoff went on a Christmas break to the United States in his 80s.
Two years later, he was on his way across the pond again and having lunch with his pen pal in New Jersey, SWNS writes. But for those wondering:
– We’re just friends, like good neighbors, says Byrne.
Because there has never been any romance between the two. Geoff was happily married until his wife died 11 years ago.
