They've been pen pals for 70 years. Now they hope to reunite after the pandemic

In the 1950s, Tom Telfer's name and address landed in the hands of a teenage lad in England. Telfer's father had placed an ad in a stamp collector's magazine.

"I was about 14," said Peter Hughes from his home in Devizes, England. "My English tutor was not satisfied with the whole class standard of English. So he came in one day with a whole list of Canadian addresses and handed them out."

Hughes wrote a letter to Tom Telfer in Ingersoll, Ont. "We had to write the letters as an exercise, really, but we had to post them as well, which we did. A few people, they didn't get a reply, but I was one of the lucky ones." 

That first letter began a seven-decades-long friendship between the two men, now both in their 80s, who as teenagers traded comics and stamps.

"It was very special back in those days. To get a letter was really special," said Telfer, who now lives in London, Ont., with his wife, Patty.

First visit to England just the beginning

Telfer was in his early 20s in 1958 when he first boarded a plane for Devizes, England to meet up with his penfriend of nine years and to backback through Europe.

"He was on his own, just a rucksack. And I thought he was quite brave," said Hughes.  

"I did nine countries in six weeks on the train," Telfer recalled.

That first visit prompted many more between the two men, who quickly became close friends, each travelling more than a dozen times across the ocean to see one another.

Hughes remembers getting a letter from a then-married Telfer with two young boys. "This letter told me that he was coming in with his family for a holiday. And could they come and spend four days with us," he said.

"We were delighted and very worried, because we've only got a small house. Another four people was a bit of a task," he said.

"We farmed the children out to somebody else," he said.

Reflecting on their friendship, the octogenarians agree they share a similar quiet temperament. 

"Our way of living bonded very well. Both the wife and I served in what we call the Boys Brigade over here," said Hughes referring to a Christian youth organization. "Tom was a principal to a school for disadvantaged students. And our interests seemed to mould in very well together." 

Telfer spent 25 years as the principal of what is now the Forest City Program at London Central Secondary.School.

An ocean apart, living through the pandemic 

Hughes and his wife have both been vaccinated for COVID-19. Telfer receives his first dose today.

After all these years, Telfer still calls and writes letters to his 83-year-old penfriend, even though he's decked out in all the new technology. He's even got an Apple watch.

As for Hughes? 

"I haven't got a computer," he laughed.

"We've just got the telephone, which makes it expensive. But we write letters and send cards," added Hughes' wife, Marion.

Telfer hopes to travel back to England once the pandemic is over. "Peter is like a brother. We could tell a million stories," he said.