Pen pals meet after 59 years of letters

Barbara Rohl, 69, of New York said she first sent a letter to Orville Schumacher, 80, of Nebraska then a soldier stationed in Korea, as a school assignment when she was 11 years old in 1951 and the two continued exchanging letters for 59 years, the New York Post reported Thursday.

Rohl and Schumacher met in person for the first time last week.

"I'm getting past 80 now and I figured if there was a time I was ever going to meet her, it's now," Schumacher said.

Rohl said she had strong emotions about meeting her longtime pen pal for the first time.

"I can't even explain how I feel about this whole thing," she said. "It's a beautiful thing."

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