Home | WebMail |

      Calgary | Regions | Local Traffic Report | Advertise on Action News | Contact

PEI

Lyndsey Paynter, meet Lyndsey Paynter: Island woman meets name-twin

After months of talking online, two strangers with a unique connection finally met this weekend in P.E.I.

'I feel like in this agealmost anything happens'

The Lyndsey Paynter on the left is from Long River P.E.I. The Lyndsey Paynter on the right is from Kentucky, Ohio. (Isabella Zavarise/CBC)

An Island woman met her namesake this weekend after a serendipitous moment online.

Lyndsey Paynter from Long River, P.E.I., recalls mistakenly getting her profile tagged in a post on Instagram.

"I was like, 'This is not for me'. So I wrote on it 'wrong chick,'" she said.

But that wasn't the end of it.

"Her now-husband writes back, 'So my fiance's name is also Lyndsey Paynter and she's also an artist and you should probably join forces somehow.'"

It turns out Lyndsey Paynter from Kentucky, Ohio, spells her name identically to her Canadian counterpart.

'We like to call it Linception'

After the online incident,the twobecame friends an event they nowreferto as "friendship at first Instagram direct message."

They began to communicate over Instagram and eventually started usingFaceTime as they discovered they had a lot more in common than just their names.

Both Paynters are artists. (Isabella Zavarise/CBC)

"We both like Marvel, we're into like fantasy and science fiction books," said Paynter from P.E.I.

"When we were chatting, weboth had tickets to go to the premiere of Avengers End Game," she said.

They saidthey hit it off instantly, sharingsimilar senses of humour and their love of art.

After eight months of talking, they decided it was time to meet in person.

The Kentucky-born Paynter drove more than 20 hours to see her new Island friend. She has begun her visit and will stay until Thursday.

The women say they already have plans to meet again. (Isabella Zavarise/CBC)

"It was almost like we had never been apart," she said.

"We like to call it Linception," said P.E.I.'s Paynter.

Plans to meet again

To prepare for her arrival, Paynterstocked up on Canadian snacksand books. They plan to explore the Island and work on their art.

The American Paynter said she credits the unique encounter to social media and said the two have plans to meet again soon.

"I feel like in this agealmost anything happens," she said.

More P.E.I. news