I LEFT Bolton with my parents in 1955, shortly after completing my National Service on the Suez Canal.

I had a beautiful girlfriend at the time and there was a loose arrangement that she would follow.

Shortly after my arrival in Australia, I received an Air Mail to say that she was pregnant and I began making arrangements for her to move out here.

However, shortly after the birth of a baby girl, she decided to stay at home, after all it was a huge decision to make.

I had no contact whatsoever from that time in 1956 until my step-daughter gave me a computer in 2005 - 49 years later.

Through The Bolton News internet facilities, I was contacted by my daughter, who I had never met, who told me that her mother had sadly passed away.

She said that I had two granddaughters and two great grandchildren.

Remembering how devastated I was when my girlfriend decided not to make the trip, I wonder just how life would have been had she come here.

I visited Bolton a few years ago, but thought it better not to try to find my old girlfriend as it would be intrusive, after all this time, to do so. I now regret this decision.

While this was going on, I made contact by mail with an old teacher of mine while at St Bartholomew's CofE school. Again, I did this thanks to The Bolton News internet service.

I had last seen her in 1947. The school in Thynne Street has since been pulled down. My ex-teacher is now in her 90s and she remembered me and my sister, who had left the school in 1944. We exchange letters and make occasional phone calls.

Both instances show how the internet has changed the world since the 1950s and what a valuable service The Bolton News provides.

Geoffrey Wright Sydney Australia