Carrick woman meets pen-pal in 1985

The women started writing to each other while still at school, and soon hit it off.

For 12 days the woman from Michigan and her family came to stay in the east Antrim town in the summer of 1985.

At first the women were a little apprehensive as to whether their husbands and children would get on as well as they did, but in the end they had nothing to worry about as everyone enjoyed the new company. They had planned to meet a lot sooner, but things always seemed to come up which stopped them. With the 25th anniversary of their first correspondence approaching in 1987, the family from Carrick planned to head to Michigan to stay.