My Pen Pal of 47 Years

In 1970, I was an avid reader of Horse and Rider magazine. That was where the first-ever article about the hobby was published. It was about the IMPHSA (International Model Photo Horse Show Association) run by Ellen Hitchins and Simi Smiljanic, and where I joined the very beginnings of the model horse hobby.

The magazine also had a pen pal section - you could send in your name and address, and they would print it so that you could correspond with other horse-loving people. I got around forty pen pals through sending in my name, and forty-seven years later I am still in touch with two of them: Sue Seese Brewster and Beth Dickinson.

Like me, both joined the model horse hobby in 1971. Beth is still very active in it (go here to see a picture of us at this year's BreyerFest) but Sue dropped out after about ten years because she owned and showed two world-class horses at the big AQHA shows.

Both women became dear lifelong friends and we share a long history together. As such, we have been through each other's ups and downs of life.

Sue was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. 

Sue in her mother's home, July, 2017.  

See the horsey artwork on the wall behind her? Her mother painted all those. She also did three paintings of my horses, Amy and Cee, that are hanging in my office and are treasures to me. (Go here to see those.)

Sue lives in a remote area of the west, and so she is traveling back and forth to her mother's home in town for her cancer treatments. She is also the caretaker (along with her husband) of her elderly mother-in-law and has much on her plate. I can only imagine how she is juggling her schedule so that she can care for herself as well as her family.

I mailed Sue a package full of little gifts Saturday that are all connected to our long history of friendship. Each is wrapped and represents something that we have shared. I included a note that explained that she could open them all at once or that she could save them and open each one at a time, perhaps when treatment was rough or she was feeling blue.

Aside from keeping her in my prayers, there is not a whole lot more I can do for my longtime friend. I am hopeful that we will have many years ahead of us in which to correspond.