We Saved Every Letter We Wrote To Each Other Over 60 Years. Here's What Happened When We Read Them Again.

A 2024 photo shows bundles of letters and notes that the author and Steph, her friend, sent each other. Courtesy of Megan Vered On a scorching June day in 2020, in the middle of COVID-19 lockdown, I hauled a bankers box labeled “Megan’s Correspondence” down from the attic. “I love you” became “Ibelfi lobelfuv youbelfoo.” And we didn’t only write these languages; we uttered them at rapid speed. It’s not as if we said to each other, “Let’s save our letters so that when we’re 70 we can read them.” The years simply added up, as did the piles of paper, made even more precious by the passage of time and loss. Over the years, Steph’s children, who have found glee in the gambit of nicknames, goofy faces and hard-core laughter, have frequently asked, “Am I ever going to have a friend like Megan?” While they have witnessed how we prop each other up with comfort and concern, they aren’t aware of the times we have spoken out of turn, had our own best interest at heart, or left the other one in need.