Pen pals from childhood share a journey of more than 50 years

Their friendship has spanned seven decades through childhood, marriage, children of their own, divorce, sickness and now a pandemic.

It started in 1967 when 11-year-old Ruth Young of Little Bras d'Or, N.S., decided to write to the children's page of the Free Press weekly based in Winnipeg. Young wanted a pen pal.

She is RuthBoudreaunow. She said people today might be shocked at the idea of including your home address in a newspaper advertisement, butshe said it"was a simpler time" then.

Her father had died that April. In the days beforesocial media, a pen pal offered a chanceto learn about new places and meet new people.

"It was back 54 years ago," Boudreau said chuckling. "I mean, there was no internet, there was one channel on the TV. You went to bed with your transistor radio.

"It was like a different time. So to have that connection with somebody in another part of the country that seemed like and it was thousands of miles away, it was just kind of cool, right?"

Ruth got a surprise. Two weeks later,her grandfather came home from the post office with about 200 letters from across Canada. There were even some fromJapan and Australia.

The number of letters she received grew to 300 in the next few weeks.

She was slightly overwhelmed by the response. She replied to two letters from Newfoundland, one from Japan, one from Australiaand one from Moose Jaw, Sask.

Her new Saskatchewan friend, Anita Peterman, was the one that lasted.

Still living in her childhood home today, Boudreau said she isn't sure why she and Anita clicked.

"She'd write and say about what she was doing or where she was going because she did live in Moose Jaw. It was a little bit bigger than Little Bras d'Or,"Boudreau said.

Boudreau turns 66 in October.Peterman,now Wrubleski, lives in Winnipeg. She turned 66 in February.

For decades their communication was through regular mail, Boudreau said. It required patience as letters took about 10 days to reach their destination.

She said long-distance telephone calls were expensive so they reserved those for special occasions like Christmas. They would also send each other presents for birthdays and Christmas.

Boudreau said it felt like she was writing someone in a different world because that person lived somewhere that she thought she would never visit.

"And I didn't get there until 2013," she said laughing, noting it was when she flew west to see one of her sons in Alberta and another in Whitehorse.

Asit turned out, there was a connection between Wrubleski and Boudreau that they eventually discovered through their letters. They both had Nova Scotia roots.

Wrubleski's mother was originally from Sydney and her parents met in Halifax before getting married and moving to Moose Jaw.

"And there were still relatives here ... thather mom still knew and kept in contact with," Boudreau said.

That continuing connection that Wrubleski'smother kept with her Cape Breton family led to the one and only time the two pen pals got to meet. It wasin June 1979.

During the visit, Boudreau showed her friend around. They visited thePoint Aconi lighthouse, which has since been lost to a fire.

"I just have some pictures in front of the water because that was one thing she wanted to see was the ocean.Because, I mean, she lived in Saskatchewan," Boudreausaid.

She said after herpen palflew back to Saskatchewan, a strange coincidence happened.

Boudreau had gotten engaged earlier in 1979. After returning home, Anita's boyfriend, Dale, proposed to her.

"Acouple of weeks later, I got a letter from her saying, 'Dale asked me to marry him. We're getting married October 20th at 3 p.m.' and in that span of time, we had set our wedding date and our wedding date was October 20 at 3 p.m."

Boudreaugot divorced after 14 years. She said Anita's wedding anniversary photos remind her of her own anniversary.

They've continued to share the ebb and flow of their lives.

Wrubleski had two daughters and became a grandmother in 2020. Boudreau had two boys and a girl and is also a grandparent.

Boudreau was a nurse, retiring in2015 after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. She underwent seven months of chemotherapy and is now inremission.

Wrubleski was a lab technician until her children were born. Shelater became a teacher's aide.

Boudreau said Wrubleski was supportive during her fight with cancer and would send cards and call her to ensure she was doing OK.

She said their communication switched to email in 2000 when she got her first computer, but she still writesreal letters and cards from time to time.

They also follow each other on social media and exchange photos of family events.

Boudreau said she considers Wrubleskipart of her family. She said she hasn't kept any of the old letters because she has alifetime of memories.

"It's nice,it really is, now50-some years later, to have that connection."