60 years later, pen pals meet face to face

    On May 20, Holyoke resident Sylvia Stockton found herself waiting for the arrival of a friend whom she had never met.
    It was a cool day in Holyoke, just 60 degrees, with a few scattered clouds. The plan had been to meet at The Skillet on Denver Street for lunch. Stockton had made it to the restaurant before her friend, so she was the one who had to wait.
    More than 60 years of correspondence had led up to this moment — Stockton’s first meeting with a pen pal that she had been writing to since her time as a student in nursing school.
    Bakri Marshi, a retired teacher originally from Syria, made the drive from Alabama last month to visit Stockton. The two reflected on a lifelong friendship founded on cultural exchange and a mutual love of history.
    Stockton, who was born in Yuma, credits her father with sparking her interest in history and reading.
    “You either read or you got in trouble,” she laughed.
    The chance to correspond with young people from other countries came through Scholastic Magazine’s pen pal program. Before she met Marshi, she had received letters from New Zealand, Korea and Sweden.
    Eventually, they fell out of touch — the letters from her Korean friend stopped during the war, and, when she heard from him last, the man from Sweden had gotten married.
    But Stockton’s interest in world history never waned. After high school, she reached out through Scholastic Magazine to another young man, this time an immigrant from Syria.
    Although she couldn’t have known it, Stockton was embarking on a correspondence that would remain a central part of her life for decades to come.
    The two found that they had much in common. Both of them were college students  — Marshi at Colorado State University and Stockton at a nursing school affiliated with the University of Colorado. Each had a deep love for history and a curiosity about the other’s culture.
    Stockton remembered the impression she got of Marshi from their first letters.
    “He was a very personal person, very private,” she said. “He was very  intelligent. He loved history, and he still does.”
    Marshi detailed his life in Syria. His family raised registered Arabian horses, and he had multiple siblings.
    Whenever he returned to Syria, he made sure to take photographs for Stockton. Although she hasn’t kept all of their letters, Stockton remembers in particular the photographs he took of himself riding his family’s horses.
    Today, Marshi is a naturalized citizen. He lives with his son in Alabama. Stockton also lives with her son, who has taken a special interest in genealogy.
    Stockton says that Marshi’s arrival in Holyoke came as a pleasant surprise. Marshi called her one day, asking whether it would be all right for him to visit in five days’ time.
    “I said, ‘Well yeah, come on out.’ Well, in two days they were here,” said Stockton.
    Marshi and his son got into Holyoke on a Friday and stayed at the Burge Hotel on Interocean Avenue. Stockton and Marshi met at The Skillet on Sunday, and then again for breakfast at KarDale’s on Monday.
    Despite the fact that they had never met face to face,  Stockton says that they spoke easily on their favorite subject: history.
    “He could sit and talk for hours and tell you all kinds of history and things which were very interesting,” said Stockton.
    Marshi left Holyoke after the two had breakfast.
    Stockton said it was tough to summarize exactly what her and Marshi’s decades-long relationship has meant to her.
    Her son said that, before he left, Marshi mentioned how their friendship had impacted him.
    “He referred to Mom as being a huge part of his support network,” he said.  “He said that my mother had been more than a friend to him for many, many years.”