Hof der dingen - Pen pals

Remember the days before smartphones, WhatsApp or Messenger? When we still wrote old-fashioned letters to each other — with actual pen and paper? 

It wasn’t all that long ago. Just ask Caroline Zonnekeyn, who shared these handwritten letters with us — along with the beautiful story behind them. 

“In the late 1960s, Lutgart Simoens launched her radio programme Vragen staat Vrij (Just Ask). It was an instant hit with the audience. My mother Simone, who was 18 at the time, was a devoted fan from the start. When she heard a Dutch woman on the show looking for a pen pal in Flanders, she didn’t hesitate for a second. They clicked right away and wrote each other weekly for years. It was the start of a deep and warm friendship that lasted until my mother passed away in 2020 — her pen pal passed just two years later. These letters are quiet witnesses to the warm and profound bond they shared. Our mothers may no longer be here, but the friendship lives on between their children.”