Sandi Fisher and Beth Graham have been friends for most of their lives — even though they just met.
Cameras from the TV newsmagazine “Inside Edition” recently captured their emotional face-to-face meeting after 38 years of being pen pals.
“You’re shorter than I thought,” Fisher said through tears.
In the late 1970s, a children’s TV show that highlighted different cultures put the two in touch as part of a pen pal program.
Fisher recalls being disappointed after receiving Graham’s letter and learning her new pen pal wasn’t from another country, but from Pennsylvania. She wrote back anyway, beginning their decades-long friendship.
The two often made plans to meet, but things always fell through. So they kept writing.
Although the correspondence eventually moved to social media, the long-awaited meeting prompted Fisher and Graham to exchange letters again.
“[My letter] was about how emotional [the meeting] was, and how wonderful it was to meet her,” Fisher said.
Later, Graham was feeling nostalgic and wrote to Fisher about her favorite actor and favorite things.
“Because that’s what we used to write about,” she said.