A LIFETIME OF LOVE LETTERS

When Lynn Florkiewicz, 66, lost her husband and soulmate, she let the words flow

- RACHAEL TOMPKINS

‘I’m Tad and I’m 27 years old and from Yorkshire. I’m in the Army, currently stationed in Germany,’ said the words below his picture. ‘My hobbies are reading and writing.’

‘He’s the most handsome man I’ve ever seen,’ I thought, looking at his dark hair and olive skin. It was 1986 and I was 27 and living in Crawley, Sussex, and working as a reservations agent at Continental Airlines. As I carried on reading through The Pen Society magazine, which connects pen pals, I couldn’t get this man out of my head.

We shared the same hobbies – reading and writing, but he was so handsome that I thought there was no way he would be interested in me or becoming my pen pal. So I threw the magazine in the bin. But a few days later, on a whim, I fetched it out and started writing to him.

‘I’m Lynn,’ I began. ‘I like writing and reading too.’

I posted the letter and couldn’t believe it when I received a reply a few days later. ‘My parents are Polish and came over to England after the war and settled in Bradford,’ he explained. ‘I was born there and have a younger brother. I’m a mechanical and electrical engineer in the Army.’

FIRST MEETING

He also told me he was going to Canada for three months soon, hence his reason for wanting a pen pal. After that Tad and I wrote to each other several times a week and we became great friends.