In the digital age of the internet where messaging someone on the other side of the world can be done in a matter of seconds, the idea of having a pen pal is a concept from a different time.
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However, for NSW man Greg Murrells, this year marks 67 years of writing to his pen pal, Helen Smith, who is from Texas in the USA.
The pair began exchanging handwritten letters across the Pacific Ocean in 1955.
Their pen pal story began when the now 78-year-old Port Macquarie resident Greg decided to first write to a school in Canada to find a pen pal when he was 11.
"I grew up in the country and we had no TV and no radio, so it was a very different world then," Greg said.
"My mum encouraged me to pick a town on a map and write to the school in that town and explain that I'm 11-years-old and want to have a pen friend."
Greg picked a town in Canada first and received 11 letters in return when the whole class wrote back to him.
It's been great fun just having her to talk to over the years.
- Greg Murrells
"Then I wrote to a school in Waco in Texas and the teacher picked Helen and asked her to write back to me.
"That's how it all started, she wrote back to me and sent photos and I did the same."
Greg and Helen often exchanged details of their schools, friends and sports they were involved in.
When Greg was 18, he travelled to England where he lived for 15 months before moving to Canada for six months and then going on to travel through the US.
Greg and Helen met in person for the first and only time when they were 19 in 1963.
"I went to Fort Worth in Texas where Helen was living and we met. She was married then and I spent a week with her and her husband," Greg said.
He was also able to meet the teacher that first encouraged Helen to write back to Greg.
"That was quite exciting and special," Greg said.
When Greg returned home, he kept in contact with Helen. During this time, Greg began to lose contact with other pen pals he had been writing to since he was 11.
"Helen and I just continued to keep in contact," he said.
Greg can remember writing to Helen to tell her about when television came to Australia.
"I wrote to her and told her that Australia was going to get the seeing radio soon and she wrote back and told me it was called a television."
Their messages to each other shifted to focus on their respective families, their work and their adult lives over the years.
Their form of contact has also evolved over time, from writing handwritten letters, to email, phone calls and now texting.
"She will still send me Christmas cards and we still email each other, but we also pick up the phone and talk.
"It's nice to find out what she's doing."
IN OTHER NEWS
Greg said he will reach out to Helen if there's something happening in Texas to make sure she's alright.
"If there's fires or something else happens in Texas, I will contact her to see if it's impacting her," he said.
"People don't seem to have pen friends anymore and it's nice to have that friendship."
Greg's daughter Joanne recently commissioned a painting from Helen for his birthday.
"I didn't know about it. It's a beautiful painting of her house in the trees and is where she lives now."
"It's been great fun just having her to talk to over the years," Greg said.
"It just seemed to happen that we continued to keep in contact and talk about our families."
