From the heart

Dashing from my house to the post box, I posted my letter and wondered if I’d ever get a reply. It was July 1957 and I’d sent the letter after spotting an ad in the local newspaper.

‘Pen pal wanted,’ it said, and as I read on I discovered it was from a lonely sailor who was posted in Hong Kong with the navy.

While I was only 16, it didn’t stop me from quickly scribbling off a letter to Able Seaman Williams before my parents - Joan and George Kerrigan - could see