It took more than 50 years, but Rita Click and Teresa Twine-McNease finally met for the first time on June 18 here in Cañon City.

Both of them saw an ad for pen pals in a railroad newspaper, where both of their fathers worked for the railroad, Click's father in Granite City, Ill., while Twine-McNease in Elliston, Va.

“They had a paper called the Laborer paper,” Twine-McNease said. “It was like a newsletter. In the back of it, they had a section for kids who wanted to write to pen pals. In Rita's case, it would say Rita Stoker, age was probably 11.”

“I got her name in there and I put my name in there, as well,” Twine-McNease said. “We started writing to each other at age 11 or 12.”

At the same time, Click, nee Stoker, remembers seeing the newspaper and writing to Twine-McNease.

“I got her name and wrote a letter to her,” Click said. “We've been friends ever since.”

In the meantime, they wrote back and forth with the letters passing often each other in the mail.

“We've talked on the phone and we've done a video chat,” Click said prior to their visit. “We've sent pictures back and forth.”

Their letters consisted of what was going on in their lives, including their graduations and other major events.

“It's been a real sisterhood all through our lives,” Twine-McNease said.

For a time, they lost touch. But Click remembered Twine-McNease's daughter's name as Angela so she looked her up and got back in touch with Twine-McNease that way.

“I looked her up by her last name and I couldn't find her,” Twine-McNease said. “She knew me as Twine, not McNease. I knew her as Stoker, not Click.”

Along the say, they decided to meet, but their visit may not have happened without the stimulus package, offering them extra funds.

“We haven't had the money,” said Click. “Even when I lived in Pittsburgh, we still couldn't get together.”

When Click learned they were going to meet for the first time, she took photos of each of them and had them put on T-shirts for both of them to wear during the visit.

“It says, 'Pen pals 50 plus years, established 1971,'” Click said. “At the bottom it says, 'Sisters forever.' We consider ourselves sisters. We're awful close.”

On June 18, Twine-McNease and her fiancé Lucius Miller arrived in Denver, where Click met her for the first time.

The first night, they had dinner with Click's parents Mabel and Harold Stoker served. The next day, Click took her company to the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park and over Skyline Drive. But all too soon, the visit ended and Click took them back to Denver, where they caught their flight to Virginia.

“Back in the '60s and '70s, the races weren't tight exactly,” Twine-McNease said. “We've been crazy about each other since day 1.”

Click agreed.

“We're two sisters that love each other,” she said.