Pen Friends Forever

Sent to us by Joyce Kelly, Connecticut

No two kids could have had less in common than Colleen Lee and Geoffrey Lake. She was 14, a demure, fresh-faced farm girl with soft chestnut hair living in tiny Soldier, Iowa. He was Geoffrey Lake, also 14, a grocery errand boy living a continent away in war-torn England in the spring of '42. They met by mail when Colleen took part in a class assignment - selecting a penpal from a list of teenagers in England - and she picked Geoffrey.

They started writing...exchanged photos...and kept writing as the years went by. By the time the war ended, Geoffrey was in the Royal Navy. He wanted to visit Colleen in Iowa, but she was engaged by this time, and when she told her fiance, the answer was a firm NO - and no more letters. The penpal friendship was over. End of story, right?

Wait...crank the calendar of time ahead about 45 years...it's now 1989, and the mayor of Soldier, Iowa, receives a letter from a Geoffrey W.Lake in England, asking if he knows where a girl named Miss Colleen Lee lives. He's 61 now and happily married to Eileen, and they have a grown son, Michael. He's been around the world in the Navy, from Bali to Panama to Canada to Holland.

So why would he want to know where his teenage penpal of World War II lives - and what makes him write that letter? "It was in the back of my mind all these years, " he says. He'd often wondered what had become of Colleen, and one night, on an impulse, he decided to try and find out.

It turns out that the mayor of Soldier and Colleen are good friends. She's long been Colleen Straight, happily married to her childhood sweetheart, Harvey. They've lived in California and Virginia, but returned to the little hamlet of Soldier 17 years earlier. They have three adult children, who have children of their own.

Colleen remembered Geoffrey when the mayor told her of the letter he'd received. She wrote back: "What a surpriseI I believe it's 45 years since we corresponded..." She told him of all that had happened over the years, ending: "Your pen pal, Colleen.' She invited Geoffrey and his wife to Soldier.

Geoffrey was thrilled. They began writing again, but it was no secret correspondence, no clandestine "romance." Both husbands and wives knew of the friendship and it was OK with them. And they always signed their letters as couples - Colleen and Harvey. Eileen and Geoff. They exchanged photos again, showing their families, their houses, sharing tidbits about their daily lives.

December 1992. Colleen had sad news for Geoffrey. Harvey had died. Geoffrey and Eileen never did get to visit Soldier. In November 1997, Eileen died.

A couple of months later, Geoffrey in his anguish picked up the phone and dialled Colleen's number. Her 10-year old granddaughter answered the phone. "Grandma, somebody I can't understand wants to talk to you." She couldn't figure out the caller's clipped English accent.

It was the first time in 56 years that Colleen and Geoffrey had ever spoken to one another. "Before it was just pen and pencil," Colleen recalls. "After hearing his voice, I think I felt he was real." Geoffrey ended the phone call with the words: "Goodbye, love" -in his English way.

They began writing and calling, more and more often...weekly, twice weekly, daily, twice a day, three times....their words became more tender, more intimate, their letters began with "My darling," and ended with strings of XXXXXXXX's. They both began to realize that the other had become precious to them, but still Colleen was reluctant to let it go any further. After all, they'd never even SEEN each other face to face. But Geoffrey persisted. "Here we are, both approaching the age of 70 and carrying on as though we are teenagers but honey, I've got a young heart...and I love you."

They met at Kennedy airport on May 28, 1998, and recognized one another amid the crowds, both knowing what the other would be wearing. Geoffrey was carrying a Tesco bag (the name of an English supermarket) containing a bottle of champagne and a fruitcake he'd made - seeking to impress her with his former Navy culinary prowess. The little 5-foot, brown-haired woman he was looking for wore a bejeweled denim outfit, and she spotted his supermarket bag.

Their eyes met for a long moment...then they came together and hugged. There was no awkwardness, no holding back, no inhibition. It was love at first sight. It was as if it was meant to be. They spent three days in New York, then went back to Iowa, where Geoffrey met her family.

Now Colleen and Geoffrey are man and wife. The Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack hang either side of the front door of their Soldier, Iowa, frame house.

No kids could have had less in common than Colleen Lee and Geoffrey Lake... The strange and wonderful thing is that a teenage pen pal friendship flowered again after 56 years, and brought a supreme happiness to them both.

Don't ever think you can figure life out.