8:29am Monday 6th July 2009
By Sally Clifford
We live in a technological age where communication is mostly through mobile phones or computers.
At the age of 93, Freda Sleight isn’t interested in e-mail, she prefers handwritten letters. She says they are more personal – and she should know! For the past 48 years Freda has been corresponding with a Dutch family she met through a message in a bottle.
Freda was in her 40s when she embarked on a four-day cruise with her husband, George. The couple were on the return journey from Hull to Rotterdam when Freda slipped a message into a bottle and threw it overboard. She had been inspired by watching fishermen dropping messages in bottles into the sea, while on holiday as a child.
Two months later, Freda’s note, asking the recipient to write to her at her Bradford home, was acknowledged by Alfonso Bleyendaal, a 16-year-old Dutch student.
Alfonso had picked the bottle up on the seashore at Heemskirk, North Holland, and penned a letter to Freda and her family, prompting their long-distance friendship.
Alfonso, now in his 60s, still writes to Freda. The last correspondence she received was before Christmas. And, to her delight, he recently telephoned her on her 93rd birthday telling her of his plans to come over and see her again.
He and his sister, Nettie, stayed with Freda and her family in Bradford for three weeks when they first came over nearly half a century ago, and Freda recalls that Alfonso’s father was eager to check out the family he had never met, before allowing his son and daughter to visit.
“His father contacted the priest at St Peter’s Church, in Leeds Road, Bradford, and asked the congregation if anyone knew us. He wanted to make sure they were in good hands. I had to go and see the priest!” smiles Freda.
Alfonso was 17 when he first came to stay. Freda says she and George were able to identify him and his sister by the passport photographs their father had sent over.
She recalls it was an emotional meeting. The couple introduced Alfonso and Nettie to their children, Geoff, Stuart and Marilyn.
The reunion was reported in the Telegraph & Argus on August 4, 1964. Alfonso told the T&A: “I had always wanted to write to an English family.”
Geoff, who was a similar age to Alfonso, recalls taking him rock climbing in Ilkley. “He had his first pint of Tetley’s in a pub in Bradford!” says Geoff.
“It is great that our family have been to see them and they have been to see us. When you think back to nearly 50 years ago, it was unheard of to know somebody who lived abroad.”
Alfonso and his pal went on holiday with the family in Fleetwood, and Freda and her family visited Alfonso and his family in Holland. Freda fondly recalls him bringing her fish and chips on his houseboat.
Opening a large blue book – one of many diaries Freda has kept over the years – she points out photographs of Nettie’s children.
Neatly arranged on the pages are Christening and wedding invitations to the family’s special occasions. Alfonso, known affectionately as ‘Fons’ by the family, has a partner but never married.
“Fons says George and Freda taught him English by letter,” says Geoff.
Alfonso’s gratitude has spanned a lifetime in letters, and Freda has no plans to put down her pen either. She loves letter-writing. Whether it be to cheer someone up or just to chat, she prefers writing to talking.
I ask whether she has plans to move into the digital age with e-mail. “She has problems with her video recorder!” says Geoff.
Freda tells me her grandchildren tried to introduce her to computers five years ago. “My grandson said, ‘do you want to learn this?’ I looked at it and thought, no!”
“Computers don’t make your brain work,” adds Freda, who intends to keep corresponding with Alfonso by pen.
Now she is hoping to see her penpal once again, following his recent phone call telling of his intentions to pay her a visit. “I am hoping he will come. I keep telling him I am getting to be an old woman!” she smiles.
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