Canadian woman reunited with NZ friend after 30 years

Dianne posted a picture on Facebook of herself and Joyce in 1948.

A Canadian woman has fulfilled her Christmas wish after reconnecting with her long-lost childhood friend who moved to New Zealand.

Quebec retiree Diane Gormley posted an appeal to Facebook this month in the hope of finding her old neighbour, Joyce Aldridge.

Ms Gormley said she lived next door to Joyce, who later married and took her husband's surname, Malofy, in Montreal in the 1940s.

The appeal was prompted by a photo she found of them together from 1948, she said.

"Something on my bucket list is to be able to speak or see her again," she wrote on Facebook. "I never forgot our friendship.

"Please share this, it's a big world out there and maybe someone will know her and where she is ... this is my Christmas wish."

Ms Gormley said her old friend was often in her thoughts.

"We grew up together on Saint-Urbain St in Montreal from the time I was born until when I was 8 years old," she said

"We grew up poor and so did she. Actually, where we lived in Montreal was called the slums - it wasn't a very expensive place because her father was overseas and my father was overseas [in World War II]."

When told by NZME. News Service that her Christmas wish had come true, and Ms Malofy was alive and well living in Warkworth, Ms Gormley said it was "like a dream".

She said she planned to talk to her old friend before Christmas and hoped to one day fly to New Zealand to see her in person.

Ms Malofy, now 73, said she had not heard from her childhood friend in more than 30 years.

"I lost track of her until I got engaged and then she came to my shower, and after that we left for New Zealand a year after we got married in 1960.

"I often think of her. We were very close when we were in Canada and I would love to see her."