The last year has been tough for everyone, but amid all the bad news, Newstalk Breakfast has been looking at some of the nicer stories to come out of the pandemic.
This week, the show heard from 10-year-old Juliette Pac-Kenny from Blackwater in Co Wexford.
She lost her grandmother last August, and to help her loneliness, Juliette’s mother Sondrine matched her up with a pen pal, 86-year-old Mary.
The pair have been writing to each other throughout lockdown.
Juliette told the programme on Friday about how the new friendship is going.
"Her name is Mary Goody and one day, we got free cards from An Post so since I have no more grandparents left in Ireland, I asked my mom if she knew any people I could write to," Juliette explained.
"She asked some of her friends if they knew anyone and one of her friends said yes, so that's how I started writing to Mary.
"I've never met her in person but she's a really nice lady.
"She's in her 80s and she got vaccinated and she lives in Portlaoise."
Juliette then described some of Mary's interests and what the pair write to each other about.
"She loves cats and she loves her family, she loves reading and she loves drawing.
"We talk about our cats, when I would talk about school she would reply about what it was like for her at school when she was younger.
"And sometimes [we talk about] her pastimes and how her family are doing.
"I'm reading lots of books so I tell her what books I've read and about my cats and about school and about my pastimes.
"Mary reminds me of my grandma."
Juliette added: "I would love to sit down and have a cup of tea and a nice piece of chocolate with her.
"I love writing letters. Sometimes I print photos of how I've been doing and I usually decorate them with lots of stickers and colours.
"I recommend it to other people to write to people who don't have people writing to them."
