Dear Friends
As we planned the issue you are reading, our Victoria editor, Barbara Cockerham, sent me the following note: “The hows and whys are lost from memory, but circumstances were such that, in my thirteenth year, I began a letter-writing relationship with an Irish girl who was one year older. Oh, the magical thrill of receiving from the hand of the postman a thin, almost fragile envelope with a foreign stamp and the word airmail written across it. “Our correspondence was filled with the typical interests of young teens, and she became my confidant as our letters crisscrossed the Atlantic Ocean. She sent small packages at Christmastime that held treasures such as a linen handkerchief embroidered with a kelly-green shamrock. Another special gift was a gold bar pin topped with, yes, a…
