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Accessibility statementSkip to main content Democracy Dies in Darkness SubscribeSign in Advertisement Democracy Dies in Darkness Inspired Life TWIST OF FATE FOR TWO GIRLS NAMED SARAH HUGHES: ‘REMEMBER THE BALLOON STORY’ Sarah Hughes released a balloon with her name and phone number in Kentucky in 1992. It was found in Connecticut by another Sarah Hughes. They just met. 6 min 33 Sarah Elizabeth Hughes, right, with Sarah Marie Hughes (now Sarah Blundo), at their first meeting last month since a balloon connected their lives more than three decades ago. (Marisa Blundo) By Cathy Free October 5, 2024 at 8:10 a.m. EDT Sarah Elizabeth Hughes was 8 years old when she decided it would be fun to release a yellow balloon into the sky on a frosty December night. It was 1992, and a restaurant worker had given her the balloon after a family dinner outing in Lexington, Ky., recalled Hughes, now 40. Subscribe for unlimited access to The Post You can cancel anytime. Subscribe “I’d seen something in a book or on TV about a person writing their name on a balloon and sending it off, so I thought that I would do that and release mine into the sky,” she said. When her family arrived home in Monticello, Ky., Hughes fetched a pen with the softest tip she could find and carefully wrote her first and last name, the name of her town and her phone number on her balloon. She didn’t include an area code, “because I wasn’t thinking it would travel very far,” she said. She also added a brief message: “Please contact.” Advertisement Story continues below advertisement “I let the balloon go into the night and I watched the yellow color contrast with the stars in the sky until it disappeared,” Hughes said. “I really didn’t expect that anyone would find it.” 😊 Follow Feel-good stories Follow Two weeks later, she and her parents were shocked to get a phone call informing them that her balloon had floated 1,200 miles to Cromwell, Conn. Incredibly, the balloon was in the hands of an 11-year-old girl. Her name was also Sarah Hughes, middle name Marie. “We couldn’t believe it — a girl with the same name had my balloon,” said Sarah Elizabeth Hughes. To distinguish the two women in this story, The Washington Post is using their first and middle names. Sarah Marie ended up with the balloon after one of her aunt’s co-workers found it outside a fitness center and thought it belonged to Sarah Marie. Story continues below advertisement When Sarah Marie said the balloon wasn’t hers, her parents looked up the area code for Monticello and phoned Sarah Elizabeth’s parents, using the number written on the balloon. Advertisement “My dad asked me, ‘Did you let a balloon go?’ and I told him, ‘Yes, I did,’” Sarah Elizabeth said. “And that’s how I ended up on the phone that night with the other Sarah Hughes.” The girls decided that night to become pen pals, she said, and they wrote back and forth to each other for more than a year before losing touch. “You know how it is,” said Sarah Elizabeth, who now lives in Covington, Ky. “You move on to other things. You grow up.” As the years passed, she said she rarely thought about how her balloon’s journey had made local headlines in the early 1990s. A story in the Wayne County Outlook dated Feb. 17, 1993, tells the improbable story of the balloon and the two girls named Sarah Hughes. Then on Sept. 21, more than 30 years after the Sarahs had last been in touch, Sarah Elizabeth decided to fly to Connecticut for a WNBA playoff basketball game that weekend. Advertisement Story continues below advertisement “I’m a big fan of the Indiana Fever, and they were playing the Connecticut Sun,” she said. “Before I boarded my flight, I was thinking, ‘Who do I know in Connecticut?’ And the only person I could think of was my pen pal from 1993.” On a whim, she googled Sarah Marie’s name and some possible phone numbers popped up. “One was a landline, and one was a cellphone number,” she said. “I decided to send a quick text before takeoff.” “Hi Sarah — I’m not sure if this is your number or not,” Sarah Elizabeth wrote. “This is Sarah Hughes (from Kentucky). Remember the balloon story in 1993? Ha!” “I’m on my flight to Hartford, then driving to Uncasville Conn. for the W.N.B.A. playoff game tomorrow,” the text continued. “Please text me back if you get this. Maybe we could meet up and say hi!” When her flight landed, she was shocked to get a reply from her former pen pal, now a married mom of three named Sarah Marie Blundo. The two agreed to meet for coffee to catch up while Sarah Elizabeth was in town. “It was such a blast from the past to hear from her out of nowhere,” said Sarah Marie, 43, noting that her daughter, Marisa, 12, had grown up hearing the balloon story and wanted to tag along to their meeting. “She’s about the same age I was when I was caught up in writing letters and drawing pictures for my pen pal,” she said. “It was always a lot of fun to put a stamp on an envelope and wait to get something back from Sarah in return.” Sarah Marie brought a folder of some of Sarah Elizabeth’s childhood letters and drawings to the cafe, and the pair spent several hours looking through them and marveling at how a simple yellow balloon had connected them three decades ago. Sarah Elizabeth told Sarah Marie that she still had the balloon, long deflated, stored in a box at home. Sarah Marie had mailed the balloon to her in 1993 after all the air leaked out. “We are both still floored that the balloon made it that far in the winter over two weeks,” Sarah Marie said. “And for me to end up with it? It’s incredible.” Advertisement Story continues below advertisement “It was really nostalgic for me to read the letters I wrote as an 8-year-old child about my life at the time,” Sarah Elizabeth said. “I talked about my dog, Abe, a lot. We both shared a lot of stories about our pets, and our siblings and what we were doing in school. It was typical girl stuff.” She and Sarah Marie said they hope another 30 years won’t slip by before they get together again. “I’d definitely like to keep in touch,” Sarah Marie said. “I think we have more to talk about than we did at 8 and 11, when we were writing about silly things and drawing pictures of unicorns.” “I’m so glad I took a chance and texted her,” Sarah Elizabeth added. “If anyone has an old childhood pen pal out there that they’re wondering about, my advice is to take a chance and reach out to them. You might be pleasantly surprised.” Share 33 Comments Read more Inspired Life stories HAND CURATED * Moms nationwide are leaving gift cards in diaper boxes. Here’s why. September 23, 2024 Moms nationwide are leaving gift cards in diaper boxes. Here’s why. September 23, 2024 * A woman was trapped in a house fire. Her dog helped save her life. September 20, 2024 A woman was trapped in a house fire. Her dog helped save her life. September 20, 2024 * Parrot is ‘attention hog’ and smart as human toddler, owners say August 20, 2024 Parrot is ‘attention hog’ and smart as human toddler, owners say August 20, 2024 View 3 more stories NewsletterThursdays for 12 weeks Voraciously: Meal Plan of Action Dinner needs a game plan. Menus and meal prep guides for the week ahead — every Thursday for 12 weeks. Sign up Subscribe to comment and get the full experience. 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