IT BEGAN WITH . . . DEAR PEN PAL
“ In one of the earlier letters we exchanged, in June 2009, I wrote, ‘Thank you for the great letter. Whenever I read it, it makes me smile!.’ That feeling and the smile on my face whenever I received one of Mrs. Malkovich’s letters never changed throughout our almost 13 years of writing. I’m not quite sure what I expected the relationship to be when I met her in fourth grade, but I definitely didn’t expect it to last so long. I’m so happy it did.” —GABY BRANIN ’17
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KENT PLACE WINTER/SPRING 2022
Two Kent Place “Sisters” — 60 Years Apart — Share More Than a Decade of Friendship Through Letters
Nestled among her fellow fourth-graders, Gaby Branin ’17 sat nervously in the Primary School’s Hauser Hall. It was spring 2009 and, as part of a longstanding Kent Place tradition, she and her classmates were about to be paired with pen pals, members of the Class of 1959 who had returned to campus for their 50th reunion. A special luncheon to mark the occasion would follow. Gaby anxiously clutched a bouquet of lilacs, which her grandparents had allowed her to trim from a bush in their yard earlier that morning. As the alumnae filed into the room, beaming, Gaby was at last introduced to Catherine (O’Hara) Malkovich. Details of the lunch have since scattered in Gaby’s memory, but the warmth and brightness that radiated from the woman, 60 years her senior, forever stick with her. It was their first — and only — in-person meeting, but it sparked an epistolary friendship that would endure for more than a dozen years. Early on, the two exchanged numerous emails. Handwritten letters were their routine later, with longer, two- or three-page notes over the holidays. (As Mrs. Malkovich’s Parkinson’s worsened, she took to typing her letters and signing her name.) “There was always just so much to update her on,” remembers Gaby, who estimates they wrote one another upwards of 50 emails and letters over the course of their 12-year friendship. Gaby eagerly gave news of her family and pets, the classes she was taking, and her summer plans. When she reached the Upper School, she wrote about the clubs she participated in (Robotics and Yearbook), her dedication to athletics (volleyball, indoor track, and lacrosse), and her commitment to earn the school’s White Blazer Award (given to senior student-athletes who earns 12 varsity letters). Mrs. Malkovich, who relocated a few times with her husband, Peter, ultimately landing in California to be closer to her children, often wrote about the activities she was involved in, her travels with Peter, and her children and grandchildren. She peppered her letters — frequently filled with humor — with Kent Place memories and questions, mining the six decades that separated their lives and the evolution of the school: In one letter Mrs. Malkovich wrote that