Zelienople woman had decades of friendship with Australian of same age
Dawna “Mitzi” Rice attended Zelienople Grade School as a child, where a classmate told her about a pen pal project in which she and an Australian sixth-grader would write letters back and forth. The classmate told Rice that an Aussie friend of her own pen pal's also wanted to correspond with someone in America.
With that first letter in 1944, a dedicated and enduring friendship was born with Maureen Martin, of Australia. Rice said in February 2009 that they exchanged letters about once per month. The two women had communicated via airmail, sharing secrets and advising one another along life's journey.
Rice mused that although some aspects of their lives were very different, she and Martin shared many similarities.
The two had never talked on the telephone or discussed visiting one another, enjoying instead their written correspondence.
“Now, we're too far up in years to visit,” Rice said.
Rice died Dec. 10, 2022.
