A Balloch grandmother welcomed a US widow to her home town after meeting by accident when a misdirected email sparked a friendship that saw the women support each other through the pandemic.
Alice McLean, 75, connected with 83-year-old Barbara Jelniker, from Colorado, after Barbara decided to send an email to someone called Alicia thanking her for an act of kindness shown to her brother.
But Barbara missed a letter from the email address, directing her message 4,400miles across the Atlantic Ocean to Alice in Balloch.
Making the most of the mishap, Alice, a retired teacher from St Columba’s High School, believed it was only right to reply to show kindness to someone who she believed, from reading her email, needed it.
From then on, the pair built up a bond over email and would message each other more than twice a week, chatting about Covid, their families and other events in their lives.
The bond became so great, that Barbara decided to book a flight to visit Alice.
Alice said: “It all happened unexpectedly, it was a real fluke. I am a widow and so was she, and we both clicked.
“Barbara said to me that my writing had helped her through the pandemic. She stayed alone, and that was really hard for her.
“My daughter and grandchildren only stay five minutes away, and we were in a bubble, so it wasn’t too bad for me.
“Barbara said to me, ‘it is my dream to come and visit you and take a walk through Balloch Park’. And when she arrived, it was very emotional. I knew before she came that we would get on and we did, even better than I had initially thought. She was nice, gentle and had a wicked sense of humour.”
Alice, who used to teach RE to comedian Kevin Bridges, showed Barbara all the hotspots including Duck Bay, Balloch Hotel, Balloch park, Dino’s ice cream and Helensburgh front, among others.
Alice said: “Barbara couldn’t stop commenting on how lovely it was here. She stays roughly 40 minutes away from the Rocky Mountains, but she couldn’t believe the beauty we had on our doorstep.
“I took Barbara and her friend Karen to Balloch House for dinner with four of my friends and it was a rare laugh, we had a sing-song too, we sang My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose.
“It was very emotional saying goodbye when she left, there were more than a few tears.”
