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Pen pals meet after exchanging letters for 70 years

MEDWAY, Mass. — After 70 years of sending letters, two pen pals finally met in Scotland.

Two weeks ago, Medway native Sheila Kelly flew out to Scotland to meet Eileen Sheldon, a friend she had never seen in person.

Their original story began back when they were 13 years old.

"I answered an ad, 'Do you want a pen pal?" Sheila Kelly said.

Kelly and Sheldon exchanged letters and gifts for years, and a friendship brewed from the start.

"This is a nice human being," Kelly said. "I'd really like to meet her. And you think, 'Well, that's not going to happen.' So you just keep writing."

That thought changed last Christmas after Kelly got a gift from her son: a plane ticket to Scotland.

"I thought, 'You're going to cry, your make-up will get messed up. Don't cry,'" Kelly said.

Kelly said she hopes she can reunite with her pen pal again in the future, but was happy she got to see her at least once.

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"It would be nice to see her again," Kelly said. "That would be fun. But if that doesn't happen, that's okay. It happened, and I'm so grateful."