Lifelong Pen Pals Meet Face to Face for the First Time

Corinne Speckert - Santa Cruz Sentinel Correspondent

Article Launched: 08/05/2008 12:00:00 AM PDT

Exciting, mysterious, different and unique are the words Martha Cepress of Santa Cruz used when talking about meeting her lifelong pen pal, Vangelis Papoudakis from Piraeus, Greece, for the first time Friday.

Papoudakis, also known by Martha as Angelo, the translated version of his Greek name, came to the United States for his honeymoon with his wife, Elini, and took the opportunity to finally meet his pen pal face-to-face, after writing their first letters 26 years ago in 1982.

Cepress and Papoudakis, who spoke to each other for the first time only a couple of days before Papoudakis' arrival, talked about how it wasn't easy staying in contact during a time when phone cards, instant messaging and text messaging weren't available.

"It was hard because there was no Internet. It's hard to connect through letters. How do you arrange plans through letters?" Cepress said. "Through e-mail it's almost like taking away the mystery of a pen pal. The mystique is gone, going to the mailbox and seeing the letter, but e-mail lets us have more of a conversation."

Cepress and Papoudakis, who both had numerous pen pals from around the world, became correspondents through a company that matched people based on interests and countries. Although they both lost touch with other pen pals, they managed to maintain their relationship through letters filled with pictures, newspapers, tourist brochures, post cards and voice messages taped on cassettes.

"I had to first think in Greek, translate to paper, and then record [messages] on tape," Papoudakis said.

Papoudakis said his friends and colleagues in Greece couldn't understand why a 42-year-old man would want to maintain such a long-distance relationship, and that he had to explain to them why it's important for him to spend his honeymoon in America.

"The majority of my colleagues [made fun of me]. A traditional honeymoon is to go to the islands. No one ever thinks to go to the States. [But] we have common thoughts. [Cepress] knows all my previous affairs and I know hers," Vangelis said, while laughing. "You can't erase history."

Cepress was 14 when she first started writing 16-year-old Papoudakis. Now in their early 40s with families of their own, they can reminisce about their past conversations about politics from the Cold War era and the years of Ronald Reagan's presidency and discuss future meet-ups.

Sitting with Cepress' husband, Jimmy, and Papoudakis's wife, Elini, the friends at the Walnut Street Cafe on Monday, joked about when they'd see each other again. Cepress said they can't wait another 25 years, when they'd be retirement age. "Our next meeting would be in Miami," Papoudakis quipped. "In a wheelchair with blankets and wet socks," Elini chimed in.