Kristina Olson and Ned Felder reunion
What gets me is how a kid's gesture can outlast so much. In 1967, 12-year-old Kristina Olson from Michigan helped put together something for soldiers in Vietnam, and it landed with Army Captain Ned Felder. He wrote her a thank-you letter, and that started years of correspondence between them before life pulled them apart and contact faded. She held onto those letters. She also held onto the memory of how kind he'd been. Then came the hard part: Kristina lost her husband, and later her 27-year-old son. In that grief, she started thinking about the people who'd made her life better, and she realized she'd never thanked Ned the way she should have. So she went looking. An online search led her to his university's alumni office, and she sent another letter. Ned was glad to hear from her after all those decades. On Veterans Day in 2023, they met in person for the first time since the letters stopped. Ned was 86. Kristina was 68. They hugged, and both were overwhelmed. A friendship that started with a child's kindness made it through 56 years, plenty of distance, and some of the worst things life hands out. That's the base of it #Vietnam
