Seven decades of sisterhood

WAUPACA – In 1955, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, Bill Haley and His Comets hit the top of the music charts with “Rock Around the Clock,” Cinerama Holiday was the number one movie at the box office; it was also the year a friendship started for two young ladies that has spanned over 70 years.

Shirley (Hedtke) Yaeger, originally from Clintonville, was asked to draw a random name out of a box for a pen pal in Scotland while she was a Brownie, the precursor to becoming a Girl Scout.

The name she drew was Kathleen (Bonthron) Wilson, who was ten years old at the time; Yaeger was eleven years old.

“It was fate, I think it must be fate,” Wilson said.

Yaeger agreed.

“It’s like she’s my soul mate,” Yaeger said.

Yaeger said they just clicked, after the rest of her troop were no longer writing with their pen pals, they continued to write each other through high school, marriage and having children, with Wilson even naming her daughter Shirley.

“We’re starting to appreciate what we’ve gone through together,” Yaeger said. “Our kids, their illnesses, their marriages, their lives, our lives, our illnesses.”

From 1955 to present day, communication capabilities have changed entirely, from writing letters, to email, to texting, to WhatsApp, the application the ladies use the most frequently.

Wilson and Yaeger did not talk on the telephone until 2009.

Yaeger said at first she had a lot of trouble understanding what Wilson was saying; however, Wilson said she also struggled at first, saying it was because they both talk fast.

The changes in communication methods served to make communication easier, but for the better part of the friendship has been handwritten letters sent across the ocean.

When one of the ladies would start to slow down on writing, the other would nudge them as a reminder.

“Kathleen was better than I at consistent letters. I was kind of slack one year and she called me ‘cheeky,’” Yaeger said. “I thought I better get back to it.”

Yaeger first visited Scotland in 2009 and again in 2019, where Yaeger was able to see where Wilson lived and see in real life places once only described by letter.

Wilson’s first trip to America happened over this past Labor Day weekend, marking the longest the two have spent together in person in their entire friendship.

Yaeger said that despite visiting Scotland twice their time together was limited; however, the ladies decided they need to visit each other more moving forward.

Yaeger and Wilson describe their bond as sisterhood.

When Wilson’s husband passed away a few years back, her son, Andrew, arranged for Yaeger to be present at the funeral through a live video stream.

Wilson named her daughter after Yaeger as well, and to keep things organized through text messages the names have their respective countries flags next to them, to emphasize “Scottish Shirley” and “American Shirley.”

Yaeger and Wilson’s daughters are similar in age and have also started a friendship through their mothers, as the sisterhood continues to the next generation.

Both ladies agree they will remain chosen sisters to the very end.

“I just cherish this young lady here,” Yaeger said. “We have nothing profound to say, but we’re just here to be happy together … and I feel peace. It’s like she’s my second home.”

Wilson agreed.

“We’re just getting closer and closer and closer as the years have gone,” she said. “What we have is so special and people don’t understand. It’s a sister really … I think of her as family.”