Woman discovers her childhood pen pal is the doctor who delivered her 2 kids
"I feel like it's just an incredible connection that she and I both have.”
Two Pennsylvania women were shocked to find out recently that they were each other’s childhood pen pals over 30 years ago.
Megan Lewis, 38, told ABC News she was visiting her parents’ home over Thanksgiving when she looked over some childhood items, including letters she wrote to a pen pal when she was in elementary school.
Lewis said when she searched the name of her childhood pen pal online, the photo of her OB-GYN, who delivered her two children, came up.
“The very first letter, it was typed up. It had Dr. [Suzanne Pugh’s] first and last name, but it was her maiden name,” Lewis recalled.
“I was looking at the letters [going like,] ‘Who is this?’” Lewis continued. “I Googled the name and her picture popped up on Google with her maiden name, and I was shocked. I couldn't believe it.”
Lewis said she started seeing Dr. Suzanne Pugh, an OB-GYN in the Philadelphia area, in 2018 when she was pregnant with her eldest child.
“I went through a tough time before getting pregnant with my daughter and Dr. Pugh was really there for me and really supported me during my pregnancy with my daughter, Caroline, and then my son Jack, and she made sure that she was the doctor for my deliveries,” Lewis explained.
Lewis said she stayed in touch and would occasionally share photo updates with Pugh about her kids and their milestones.
But over the years, the two women had no idea that they had first connected years ago when Pugh was an 11th grader at West Chester East High School and Lewis was a second grader at Fern Hill Elementary School. They later realized they likely had been matched by their teachers to be pen pals.
The two had written and typed letters to each other from 1994 until 1995. They shared what they loved to do and bonded over learning gymnastics. In one letter, Pugh even wrote that Lewis had visited her school but the two women say they don’t remember the event.
When Lewis saw Pugh’s name and photo pop up again in her online search, she reached out again to Pugh, now 47.
“She texted me asking if I remembered having a pen pal when I was in high school,” Pugh explained to ABC News via email. “I had no recollection of this. Her mom had given her a box of papers/momentos from elementary school, and in the box were the letters from me. She sent me pictures of the letters and it was me! It’s such a crazy small world.”
The women had the chance to reunite earlier this December and Philadelphia ABC station WPVI captured the two at Pugh’s home, taking a trip down memory lane and looking back at their letters.
“The amazing thing is that we didn’t remember being pen pals, but Megan is such a special patient and person, and it’s amazing to think that we were linked 30 years ago!” Pugh told ABC News.
Lewis said she now feels an even more special bond with Pugh, whom she describes as a “close friend."
“If I could go back in time and tell my 7-year-old self that the pen pal that I would be writing to would end up taking care of me during my pregnancies and delivering my kids, I don't know that I’d believe it. I feel like it's just an incredible connection that she and I both have,” Lewis said.
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