Pen pals
After 40 years, long-time friends finally meet
Karen Ellett, right, of Ramah, and Glenda Challendor, left, of Australia, show books to students in April Simun's sophomore literary class at Ramah High School on Wednesday. Ellett and Challendor, who have been pen pals for 40 years, met for the first time. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

RAMAH — Karen Ellett and Glenda Challenor know something about the enduring power of friendship.
Ellett, of Ramah, and Challenor, of Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, met for the first time on Sunday at the Albuquerque airport after being pen pals for almost 40 years. Challenor is on a 19-day “holiday” with Ellett, the long-distance friend she struck up a correspondence with back when she was a 15-year-old Australian girl living on a dairy farm outside Toowoomba and Ellett was a 14-year-old Navy brat living on Long Island, N.Y.

The two women were in April Simun’s classroom at Ramah High School on Wednesday, talking to several of Simun’s classes about being pen pals for nearly four decades and sharing information about Australia: from its critters — koala bears, kangaroos, Tasmanian Devils, and wombats — to its beloved sport of cricket and its Down Under summer Christmas season.

According to Challenor, when she first signed up to be a pen pal with an American student, she was given a boy’s name and address. Her parents, however, wouldn’t let her correspond with a boy and insisted she get a new pen pal. She was then assigned to Ellett’s sister, Vickie, who passed the letter writing on to Ellett. The two girls hit it off and began writing about typical teenage topics — school, family, and boys. As they grew up, their topics turned to jobs, husbands, and children.

Challenor married in 1972 and is the mother of one son. Ellett, married in 1974, has raised three sons and cared for 37 foster children. She and her husband, a former law enforcement officer from Phoenix, moved to Ramah’s Timberlake Ranches area 12 years ago.

As their family lives got busier, their correspondence got less frequent, they explained, but they always sent Christmas cards and gifts.

“I don’t think there has been a Christmas go by without receiving a package from Australia,” Ellett told a group of Simun’s students.

Ellett still has the worn out little stuffed toy — a koala bear — Challenor once sent her as a gift. She brought it to show the Ramah students, along with a stack of books on Australia that Challenor had sent her through the years.

Although the two women can keep in touch quickly and easily through e-mail, they encouraged the students to nourish their own friendships by taking the time to write letters.

“It’s important to keep the relationship going, to stay friends,” Challenor said.

“Writing takes time,” added Ellett, who talked about the enjoyment of receiving mail and finding a personal letter. “But writing is much more personal.”

The women agreed that letter writing allows them to feel more of each other’s joys — as in the birth of Ellett’s first grandchild — and difficulties — as when Challenor’s husband lost his job — than they can through e-mails.
After spending 40 years writing and several days visiting with each other, Ellett and Challenor also agree that they are very much alike. Both work with children — Ellett is a substitute teacher in Ramah and Challenor is a school library aide — and both share a strong Christian faith and love for their families.

“I would say we’re similar,” Ellett said. “We both stayed married,” she added with a laugh, “that’s pretty awesome.”

And differences?

“She talks funny,” joked Ellett.

“So do you,” Challenor shot back.

The only arguments they’ve had in 40 years, they said, are the friendly arguments they’ve had over the last few days about who gets to pay for what — like lunch at Earl’s Restaurant in Gallup — during Challenor’s visit.

As for the remainder of their time together, Ellett and Challenor will be touring a number of sights in the Southwest. On Tuesday, they took a walking tour of Gallup’s downtown murals and visited the museum at the Gallup Cultural Center. Over the next two weeks, they plan to hike at El Morro National Monument, see the Petrified Forest, visit the Grand Canyon and Oak Creek Canyon in northern Arizona, explore Kartchner Caverns State Park in southeastern Arizona, and visit Ellett’s family in Phoenix.

Being able to finally meet Ellett, admitted Challenor, is something said she always wanted to do but didn’t think might happen. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis almost 30 years ago, she explained, and although the first five years were very rough, she has been in remission ever since.

“To be able to do all these things is wonderful,” Challenor said of her visit.