She explained that she was about to meet, for the very first time, a lady with whom she has corresponded for 57 years - since 1951.

The lady is Mrs Jan Smith, Christchurch, New Zealand, who signed up for the penfriend scheme while she was a schoolgirl.

Mrs Coutts was a pupil at Arbroath High School when the link began and has continued to this very day, with 'phone calls nowadays sometimes taking the place of written correspondence.

The ladies have shared so many happy moments of their lives, and had planned to meet when their husbands retired.
Alas, both were widowed around that time, and the face-to-face meeting was postponed.

But it took place on Monday at Mrs Coutts' home, 3 Donaldson's Acre, when the ladies got together, accompanied by Mrs Smith's daughter, Alison.

We asked Mrs Coutts what that first meeting was like.

"It's not the same as looking at photographs!" she laughed. A whistlestop tour of Arbroath was included in the visitors' itinerary.

Mrs Smith and Alison have taken the opportunity to visit Forfar while in Angus, because some of her ancestors came from there. They left Arbroath yesterday.

Would Mrs Coutts ever consider returning the visit?

"Well ... " she said, thoughtfully. "There is a month next year when I might just manage to hop on to an aeroplane!"