Pals finally meet after 50 years

Two pen pals met face-to-face for the first time in more than 50 years this week.

Bermudian Leo Mills, 68, struck up a friendship with Canadian Ena Brydge in the late 1950’s after seeing an advert in the newspapers of the day.

The youngsters corresponded until late 1964, when Mr Mills left Bermuda to work in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

This year however, Mrs Brydge tracked him down as she and her husband Bill were about to go on a cruise to Bermuda — their first visit to the island.

The pen pals finally met on Monday, at the Bone Fish Bar & Grill in Dockyard.

Mr Mills said: “It was wonderful and thrilling to finally put a face to the penmanship of all those years ago.

“It was very much the kind of event that leaves wonderful, happy memories; a once-in-a-lifetime occasion.

“It was great to catch up and exchange stories of what has happened in our lives since, in those intervening years.

“We reminisced about the past, the present, and also the future.

“I was probably about 10 or 11 when we started writing, and Ena would have been around the same age.

“There was an ad in either the Bermuda Recorder or the Mid-Ocean News — which often had a ‘pen pals corner’ — with the names of children in various parts of the world who were looking for a pen pal.

“It was really one of those random acts where you point and see where your finger lands.”

Mr Mills was a first year student at the Berkeley Institute and Ena Johnston was at high school in New Liskeard, Ontario, when they struck up their initial friendship.

Snapshot at life

“Ena has saved some of the letters, and over dinner we discussed the importance of letters in providing a snapshot of life as it was back in those days,” said Mr Mills.

“This was an era where there were no cellphones, iPads, Internet, Skype or Facebook. 

“Writing letters was the primary means of communication.

“In our letters, we gave each other an idea of what life was like in our countries, the kind of schoolwork we had to do, our hobbies, and the customs and traditions of holidays such as Christmas and Guy Fawkes Day.”

In 1964, Mr Mills, who was a broadcaster for Bermuda Broadcasting Company (BBC), was seconded to a “sister station” in the BVI.

“About that time we ceased to write to each other, but at that stage there was a lot more going on in our lives and we were more focused on other things,” he said.

Mrs Brydge, an administrator in banking, brought up her family in the
Niagara Falls area.

Mr Mills married Vera and had a family of his own. He also became a barrister and a civil servant. 

Earlier this year, as Ena and her husband planned a cruise to the island on the Grandeur of the Seas, she tried to trace Mr Mills through a Canadian contact in the United Church of Canada, the Reverend Gary Clark of the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Hamilton.

Revd Clark knew Mr Mills and put the pair in touch.

Mrs Brydge called her former pen pal on the telephone and then they e-mailed, reviving their correspondence, but via electronic means.

Their reunion on Monday at the restaurant in Dockyard was described as “a blast” by Mr Mills.

He added: “Now we will be able to keep in touch more frequently, via e-mail.

“Although writing is becoming a bit of a lost art, I certainly hope becoming a pen pal will still appeal to young people.

“It can be to their advantage, in terms of being able to exchange views about their communities and what is going on in each other’s country. 

“Learning about the differences and similarities can only increase one’s world view and understanding.” n