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Queen Elizabeth wrote to a North Dakota woman every year on their shared birthday

“I could have jumped out of my shoes,” Adele Hankey said about the first time she heard from the queen.
/ Source: TODAY

Queen Elizabeth II touched many people throughout her lifetime, including one woman thousands of miles away who shared her birthday.

Like the queen, Adele Hankey, 96, of Park River, North Dakota, was born April 21, 1926. That bond served as the basis for their unlikely relationship when they became pen pals. The correspondence began when Hankey wrote the queen a letter when she was crowned in 1953, prompting the queen to send back a birthday card.

“I could have jumped out of my shoes,” Hankey told KFYR, an NBC and FOX-affiliated station in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Thus started a relationship between the pair in which they exchanged handwritten letters on their birthdays, with Hankey writing to her and always receiving a note back.

Hankey, who never met the queen, said she made a point of writing legibly, too.

“We had a teacher in school that said make your Ls long and your Es little,” she said.

And since she had Queen Elizabeth’s ear — or, more accurately, her eye — Hankey tried to get one of her trademark accessories.

“I asked her for a hat,” she said. “I was hoping she would send me one, but she sent a lovely picture.”

The pair had a bond that transcended their mutual birthdays, as well, with Hankey enjoying cooking.

“The recipes that the queen liked were with marmalade and so do I. How about that?” she said.

Hankey doesn’t know how many letters she wrote to the queen, but she does say she’ll miss their correspondence.

“Oh, absolutely. You miss your pen pals,” she said.