PROSPECT — An ad in the back of a teen magazine published in 1977 has sparked a 37-year pen-pal relationship between a Prospect woman and a woman from Melbourne, Australia.

The correspondence, conducted for decades on paper but now on Facebook, has survived career shifts, children and switching houses.

In fact, Janet Leise’s pen pal, Sharon Thompson and her husband, Bruce, just finished a 10-day stay at Leise’s home at 244 Stoney Batter Road.

“It’s been 37 years. We started when we were 15,” said Leise, a special-education teacher for Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV in Grove City.

“There was an ad in one of those teen magazines where you would send in 50 cents and get a list of pen pal addresses,” Leise said. “Sharon’s name and address was on it.”

Perhaps what made Leise drop Thompson that first letter was they both shared a birthday, Sept. 15, 1962, but that’s not all they shared.

“As we were writing, we both learned we were born on the sixth wedding anniversary of our parents. Isn’t that crazy?” Leise said.

“There were quite a few coincidences there,” said Sharon Thompson.

“We used to write a lot, seven or eight times a year, but now we are Facebook friends and write mostly for Christmas and birthdays,” Thompson said.

The two have shared laughs and heartaches via airmail.

“She broke up with a boyfriend. She sent me a list of Australian words and their American equivalents,” Leise said.

For example, when an Australian says biscuit he means cookie, savory biscuit means a cracker and lollies is a generic term for any type of candy.

It wasn’t until 1990 when the two first met face-to-face — not without trepidation on Leise’s part.

“I was living in Grove City then,” she said. “I was afraid I was going to meet her and I wasn’t going to like her. What if she expresses herself well on paper and not in person?”

The flesh-and-blood Sharon proved just as appealing as the pen-and-ink Sharon, and the relationship blossomed with Leise, in turn, visiting Australia for the first time in 1993.

“I grew up in a very large family, so we never traveled. I always wanted to travel. That was part of the draw,” she said of her pen-pal correspondence.

Leise said she had other pen pals in England, Germany and Korea, but Sharon was the one that stuck.

Sharon Thompson said, “I still have one (pen pal) in India. We are still in contact with him on Facebook.”

During the Thompsons’ visit, the retired policewoman and the retired policeman turned barrister traveled with Leise to Niagara Falls, Erie and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

They took in their first Pirates game Sunday and a church festival at St. Christopher at the Lake Roman Catholic Church.

“They never saw funnel cakes or clogging before,” said Leise.

Sharon Thompson said her proudest accomplishment was the trophy she received for finishing third place in the 50-54 category in July 25th’s Rube’s Run 5K race. Bruce Thompson finished fourth in the 55-60 age category in the same event.

“We were both just amazed that we could finish that,” Sharon Thompson said.

Her husband was impressed by the American game of baseball. It certainly wasn’t cricket.

“I thought Americans had a genius for organizing their entertainment. There was never a dull moment. Whenever there was a lull on the field, someone was shooting T-shirts into the crowd or there were pierogi races,” he said. “And the food in the stadium ... It was like a picnic. All it needed was a few red wines.”

After leaving Prospect, the Thompsons will range up and down the East Coast, taking in a U2 concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, a Maroon 5 show in Hershey and finally an AC/DC show in New Jersey Aug. 26 before heading back Down Under the next day.

Then, they said, it will be Leise’s turn to visit. She last made the trip in 2004.

“I just renewed my passport, so I have to use that up,” Leise said.