Pen pals Jill Stretton and Cathie Alexander live half a world apart. However, they’ve _________ a faithful correspondence (通信) for seven decades.   

The long-lived letter-writing relationship _________ in 1950 when 12-year-old Stretton from Australia was given Alexander’s _________ by a friend. Back then, it sometimes took six weeks for a long-distance letter to reach its _________, but the pair established an instant rapport (融洽) after their first _________ that has grown stronger with time.   

They felt as if they had truly _________ with one another, sharing life’s moments through their letters, _________ the two women didn’t meet in person until 1982. “She is just like one of the family,” Stretton said. “And we are still together as we ever were 70 years ago. That is quite _________ for people who’ve lost confidence in everlasting friendship.”

Stretton and Alexander have never stopped _________ to one another. Along with hopes, dreams, photos, and family updates, through the years, their letters have contained their sweet life __________ — weddings, birthdays, graduation and so on.

While they __________ write letters, with the development of technology, Stretton and Alexander have slightly bowed to the times. For longer messages, they’ve turned to the Internet, but they agree that nothing will __________ a handwritten note. “Now, we do __________ to send postcards rather than write long letters because we email each other now,” Stretton __________ honestly. But letter writing plays the most important part in their friendship.

The two women’s story proves that the __________ is nothing when it comes to true friendship.

Gone are the days when you and your best friend shared everything about your life. Whether you’re at fault or she is, mending a broken friendship is far from easy. If the relationship means a lot and you aren’t willing to simply throw it away, fixing it is possible. That’s what I have learned in the past months.

When I first moved to Florida, I felt so out of place. I had come from a small town and was so unsure of myself. Luckily, my husband and I moved into a friendly neighbourhood, and things became better.  

For many years, my neighbour across the street and I shared happy times. But then a misunderstanding occurred, and she quit speaking to me. I tried many times to speak to her about the issue and tell her how sorry I was that I had let her down. But she refused to take my phone calls and avoided me when I was outside.

During our conflict, my husband and I put our house up for sale. We weren’t leaving the neighbourhood because of a feeling of hurt; we were having twins and needed more room for our growing family.

Months later, I moved away without talking to her and putting an end to our misunderstanding. It always made me sad when I thought of how poorly it had ended. For many times I wished we had renewed our friendship. I just hated the feelings left from our unsolved conflict. It was like a scab(痂) that kept reopening and worsening with pain and upset.

About eight months after we moved, I decided to take a drive back into the old neighbourhood. As I drove down my street, I saw my former neighbour washing her car in her front yard. I knew that I needed to stop and greet her. I opened the car door and got out. To my surprise, she came up and gave me a big hug. We both apologized for our actions, and I felt that I finally achieved closure. I was able to say I was sorry and have it accepted.