Lind: Childhood pen pals connect after 37 years of no contact

This story began with an e-mail to The Forum from England last fall.

Helen Tree wrote that her stepfather, Alan Baker, would be celebrating his 60th birthday in February, and she'd like to surprise him by putting him in contact with a pen pal from Fargo he'd had when both were kids. Her name was Judy Brett. Could The Forum help find her?

Neighbors ran her request.

Bingo.

Judy (Brett) Smith, Fargo, was reading The Forum, checked the Neighbors column and, she writes, "was shocked and very surprised to see MY name." Since "it wasn't on the 'most wanted' list or the obits, I figured it was safe to read," she says.

But "I had to read it twice before I realized it was me you were looking for," she says, adding, "I am still alive and very well in Fargo ... I would be thrilled to have you forward my e-mail address to Helen.

"It has been 37 years since Alan and I exchanged letters; you know, the ones that go the old-fashioned way."

So Neighbors forwarded Judy's address. And in February Neighbors received an e-mail from Alan, saying, "It was a complete surprise when on my birthday I was presented with a letter and a DVD from Judy.

"Judy and I have re-established our correspondence, albeit by e-mail, not airmail."

Agassiz to England

Judy fills Neighbors in on the story behind the story.

She was in either the eighth or ninth grade at Agassiz Junior High School, Fargo, when a gym teacher (she thinks his name was Freid), who'd been a foreign exchange teacher in England, said he was looking for girls to write to the guys he'd taught there.

"I figured, 'Why not?' and took a name," Judy says. "Little did I know we would write for the next 10 or 11 years."

But the pen pals lost track of each other when both married in the early 1970s.

So she and Alan's step-daughter Helen made contact and she mailed Helen a video she and her daughter had made of Fargo "because Alan is such a history and geography nut." That's the DVD Alan referred to. It was delivered right on his birthday. "Perfect timing for the post office," Judy says.

Now she and Alan are catching up. She's learned Alan's first marriage ended in divorce, but he has married again, to Di.

Judy and her husband, Doug, ("I'm still married to the same great guy," she says) have two grown kids. Judy has worked for Drayton Foods, Fargo, for 15 years.

She and Alan have never met in person. But the way that sneaky (and thoughtful) stepdaughter of Alan works, you never know what she might dream up.

If you have an item of interest, mail it to Neighbors, The Forum, Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107; fax it to 241-5487; or e-mail blind@forumcomm.com