Priest, Student Pen Pals Meet 20 Years After War
EAST BOSTON (CBS) - It's a reunion that's been twenty years in the making.
All between a former third grade teacher, one of her students, and one of the soldiers they corresponded with during the Gulf War.
It was a class project started by teacher Jayne Biagiotti, at the former St. Lazarus School in East Boston, and finally the faces behind the letters.
Biagiotti invited army chaplain Fr. Peter Fitzgibbons to meet former third grader Michael Bond, old pen pals who had exchanged letters to brighten a soldier's day.
But it brightened the students as well, as they anticipated the arrival in the mail.
"I do remember attacking the mailman. I don't know if he liked it that we bombarded his truck when he came to school," said Bond.
"We all miss home, I especially, because I know how beautiful the fall in New England is," wrote Fr. Fitzgibbons on October 12, 1990, who said he also tried to teach the children about a place they may never visit.
"Outside the cities you'll see sand, a few trees as far as the eyes can see. Sometimes camels across the desert," he wrote.
Biagiotti says the letters were important lessons for her students.
"Part of it was writing, part of it was to help the soldiers. They got history lessons, heard about culture, heard about terrain," she said.
Now finally meeting Fr. Fitzgibbons, a Massachusetts native now serving in North Carolina, was heartwarming.
"I remember how kind she was, and her students meant a lot," he said.
"Amazing after 20 years that someone would be interested in meeting me."
He says he chose the St. Lazarus letters out of the batches that arrived to bring him closer to his actual home.
Ironically, the school closed after that academic year in June 1990.
