Fair and 81° F

In the modern era of cell phones and e-mail, it's difficult to imagine that two ladies on two different continents formed a frie-ip with pen and paper.

But that's exactly what happened between Gloria Bozard of Orangeburg and Shirley Merrick of Ledbury, England.

"When I was a young girl, about 10 or 12, I visited my aunt on Edisto Island," Gloria recalled. "She invited some young girls in to spend the day with me.

"Then one of them commented she had a pen pal in England. I said I'd love to have a pen pal. And so she got the name of Shirley from her pen pal. And we began to write."

That was about 1945, toward the end of the second World War.

"We wrote for about three years," Gloria said, "(And) we stopped writing for about 30 years."

Then, in 1983, the correspondence began again.

"I figured that Shirley had probably married by then, but I mailed the letter to her using her maiden name and same address," Gloria said.

After six months, her letter finally arrived at Shirley's new address.

The frie-ip continued, and eventually, the pen pals had their first telephone conversation.

"Shirley said that I sounded Southern," Gloria said. "We continued exchanging letters and taped conversations."

In 1990, Shirley visited Orangeburg for the very first time. And what was her initial impression of the Garden City?

"Orangeburg is really a small town, similar to our flat areas," the mother of two said. "Basically, the people are the same.

"It's like almost having a second home. We appreciate the Christian influence here. At home, it is almost wiped out."

Bazil Merrick, Shirley's husband of 50 years, added his assessment of Southern hospitality.

"People are more relaxed," he said. "We (the British) tend to have a stiff upper lip."

Besides enjoying this year's Orangeburg Festival of Roses at Edisto Memorial Gardens, the friends have visited area towns and enjoyed the countryside. Their travels included a visit to the Elloree Farm Museum and lunch at Ferse 5&10 in Orangeburg.

"We had lunch there -- it's a fabulous shop," Shirley said.

This is the third time Shirley has visited the States. It's her husband's second trip. Gloria has visited her English friends twice in recent years.

And to think -- a postage stamp years ago created a loving bond between two strangers on two separate continents.

T&D Correspondent Rendy Boland can be reached by telephone at 803-535-2222. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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