Pen Pals from Belize and Ontario Meet for First Time at Canadian University

And tonight to end the news, a heart-warming story of a Belize City resident studying at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada.  Melissa Hamilton met her pen friend after losing contact with her for over thirteen years. Hamilton is studying overseas and is pursuing a master’s degree. Back when she was in standard three and after going through the trauma of losing her father to gun violence, Hamilton started to correspond with a pen pal from another country.  Fast forward to 2019, Hamilton ends up on a scholarship programme and for the first time meets her pen friend, Heather Spicer from Ontario, who is in the same university programme. CBC Canada News documented the touching story on television and here in Belize, Paulette Crawford says her daughter is happy and has been blessed with a true friend.

Paulette Crawford

Paulette Crawford, Mother of Melissa Hamilton

“Mommy, I met my pen friend from standard three at Grace Primary School. So when she mentioned that to me, she said mommy, I was wondering if I’m in the right university and she said that I think this is the place that God want me to be because at first, she wanted to do medicine so she was viewing different universities. She wanted to go to Jamaica to do medicine there. She said okay then, she will go to Canada. But reaching Canada, she questioned whether she was at the right place. When she was convinced is when her pen pal came to her. She was in a science club and this young lady came to her and said, “Are you Melissa Hamilton from Belize?” She was astonished and said yes she is from Belize, but she is not the only Melissa Hamilton from Belize. So the young lady went and brought the letters that Melissa sent to her when she was in standard three and then Melissa convinced that oh my goodness, yes you are my pen friend. Then she said, mommy, the school newspaper wanted to interview them and that’s it. They interviewed them then. People hearing about this pen friend cause it was amazing.”