In the early 1940s, Margaret Long and a group of her friends called themselves, The Thirteen. They met at normal school (teaching college) in Vancouver and after graduation, the 13 women went off to various small towns to begin their careers - always keeping in touch through a series of round-robin letters spanning nearly 60 years.
Long, who is proud to be "90-and-a-half" said the letters between the girls got her through a lot of hard times.
After the 13 had graduated from school they were placed throughout the province from the Kootenays to the Okanagan.
"Teachers were needed in the smaller communities and people were weary about sending their children off to these small communities. So the students were being encouraged, while in school, to go to some of the smaller cities - and I did," said Long.
When the letters began they was a theme: Interested and interesting contacts club. Long is quick to translate the interesting contacts meant boys.
"Instead of saying boys, we thought the theme gave it a certain power," said Long.
Through the decades, the subject matter of the letters changed according to events taking place in the women's lives.
"The letters started talking about boys, and then weddings and showers and having children," said Long.
The letters would make their way through the group every two or three months.
Long, a gifted piano player has her degree in music and spent time as a music teacher in Burns Lake. She said the best part of her job was watching her students, children and adults, learn how to play and become comfortable with the piano.
Long now resides at the Chateau Prince George and plays piano in the dining room three days a week.
"I love it. Sitting behind the piano is where I am at home," said Long.
Of the original group of 13 letter writers, 7 of them are still alive.
