So, with everything that has been happening these past few months, I like many many others found myself housebound with no one for company except my darling children and my other half. For the first few weeks of the lockdown this was absolutely fine, I would video call my parents and grandparents daily and once a week would have a family quiz with my parents, siblings and their families, it was always great fun. However, I started to crave new conversations with new people, so I found a group on Facebook for Pen pals and I thought why not?
This group caters for everyone, everywhere. I put up a “about me” post to see if anyone would be interested in being my pen pal. I was delighted at the responses that I received. 3 months on I have pen pals in America, Germany, Italy, Poland, France and Australia. It has been fantastic to get to know other people and build friendships with them. One of my pen pals even threw a party for my daughters 5th birthday which we celebrated during lock down. My daughter loved the fact that an amazing lady and her family were celebrating with us all the way from America.
I have also learnt a lot about other countries and their cultures it truly is fascinating. I write to a wide range of women some are older than me, some are younger, some are parents, others aren’t, it doesn’t matter as we all have one thing in common- we love to write letters, it’s as simple as that.
I have also discovered another Facebook page which asks for people to write to residents in care homes in America, each resident holds up a piece of paper with their name and their interests and you simply choose who you would like to write to. The fact that someone cares enough to take the time out of their day to write a letter to them means the absolute world. And I believe I speak for all pen pallers when I say that receiving a letter truly does help battle the isolation the coronavirus has thrust upon us.
It has been said that this is the worst crisis since world war 2 and I believe that at times like this we see the very best of each other. This pandemic is something that our grandchildren will learn about and I would like to think that they will learn how we came together and helped one another even if it was just by sending something as simple as a letter.
Links:
To find penpals from all over the world