Putnam County woman meets with pen pal she hasn't seen in 50 years

Friday, May 29, 2015
Ana Lia Massolo, of Argentina, and Putnam County resident Nema Cooper (right) were able to sit next to each other and reminisce on the 50 years of writing letters. This week marks only the second time the two have been able to sit together in the five decades they have been friends, the last time being in 1980.

LIMEDALE -- Despite being close friends for almost 50 years, this week is only the second time a Putnam County woman and her Argentine pen pal have met face-to-face.

Rural Putnam County resident Nema Cooper has been writing to Ana Lia Massolo in Ramos Mejia, a suburb of Buenos Aires, since July 14, 1965. In all their years of sharing stories about their lives, families and turmoils, this is only the second time they have been able to sit across the table from one another and share.

"The first time I wrote her, I sent her a photo of my son and he was just a baby. Now he (Rick Cooper) is 51," Cooper reflected.

The last time Massolo was in the United States to visit was in 1980, after 15 years of friendship. This week, the retired teacher made a special trip to Indiana while touring the United States and Canada with a friend from her home country. She flew in from New York on Sunday to spend the week with her longtime friend.

Cooper admitted she gets overwhelmed with emotion when she sits to chat with the woman with whom most of the words they exchanged in the last few decades have been written.

Massolo began her search for a pen pal in the United States in the mid-1960s as a way to better learn English. She began by sending the first correspondence to an organization called Letters Abroad, which connected the two pen pals and ultimately created a decades-long friendship.

Cooper said she began writing to people around the world to better learn about other countries, and in doing so struck a life-long friendship.

"I felt like the world needed to be more friendly. We need to be friends with people and learn about other cultures," Cooper stressed, noting said she also keeps tabs on her pen pals from South Africa and Ireland.

"I've received gifts from Czechoslovakia and hula skirts. You learn about a piece of their culture."

Massolo said her spoken English is still broken, but she can read the language fairly well.

"I learned English from England when I was at school. But, here you speak American English. It is very different," Massolo said.

Cooper admitted she was never able to learn Spanish or visit Massolo at her home, which she regrets now as she turns 75.

The two sat in Cooper's living room this with a green suitcase full of letters, photos and post cards exchanged over the years.

"We always begin by talking about the weather. I don't know the snow," Massolo said, noting the extreme difference in the weather between the two areas.

In the last 15 years, the women, both now in their 70s, had to evolve to sending each other emails because of issues with the South American officials sifting through the letters and goods. Cooper said sometimes she would finally hear back from Massolo and learn she never received the gifts sent through the mail.

Massolo said she was unable to reach out to Cooper for about two months, then she received a letter from her pen pal requesting she send an email to better correspond. She said she had no knowledge of using computers back in 2002, so she had to call a family member to send the initial email.

Her husband's daughter did not speak English, so Massolo had to dictate the message over the phone. The first message was short, letting Cooper know she was all right, but over the years the correspondence became just like their old letters.

"Our email is long letters. I start with 'Dear Nema' and end with much love, kisses and hugs," Massolo said.

Cooper described Massolo as the sister she never had, and is grateful for their friendship, even if most of the correspondence is through the written word.

"I just love her so much," Cooper said.

Massolo said she has promised Cooper to learn more about utilizing her computer at home when she returns to Argentina to better communicate with each other.

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