Two Marys create a new memoir sharing a friendship strengthened through nearly 30 years of handwritten letters

Mary Potter Kenyon and Mary Jedlicka Humston have been friends since 1986. While they only lived as neighbors for one year, the two women - both avid writers - have been corresponding, via snail mail, ever since.

During their 30-year friendship, they have written an estimated 9,000 letters to each other.

'We would write three to four letters a week, not waiting for the return letter to arrive in the mail before writing another,” Kenyon said.

In an effort to revive the dying art of the handwritten letter, Humston and Kenyon have written 'Mary & Me: A Lasting Link Through Ink,” (Familius, September 2015). This dual memoir shows that no matter the distance, friendship can always be found in a simple opening of 'Dear Mary.”

'It was so enjoyable to look back at the women we were, busy with young children, and be reminded that that was the way for us to keep in touch,” says Humston of writing the book.

The release of the book is well timed as September is National Women's Friendship Month. Both Humston and Kenyon said the book offers readers much in the way of learning about the importance of female friendship.

'Friendships can come in and out of our lives and there's good in every friend, whether it lasts a year or 50 years,” Humston says. 'There's something that each friendship brings to our lives. And we should be grateful they were in our lives for whatever reason.”

Kenyon agreed and noted that the book looks at the fact that she had never learned to cultivate female friendships until meeting Mary (Humston), meanwhile Mary (Humston) had managed to gather and maintain a large group of friends throughout her adult life.

'Later in life, a whole world of female friendship that I didn't even know existed is now there for me too,” Kenyon says. 'The book addresses topics that affect all friendships: differing backgrounds, childhood experiences, trust, envy, faith, and more. We wanted it to be designed to open up these discussions between all generations of women.” A discussion section at the back of the book makes it ideal for women's groups and book clubs, she adds. 'I hope anyone out there like me, who is putting limitations on who they will accept as a friend, will open up the door to some friendships.”

This is Kenyon's fifth book and Humston's first - although she's had essays and poetry published locally and nationally - so they both brought interesting perspectives to the process.

'Everything was new,” Humston says. 'From proposal to being accepted, to writing, editing and, of course, waiting for the review copies to come out, all of this has been brand new to me. It has been very helpful for me to have Mary (Kenyon), a seasoned author, with me. She and I could go through it together. It was wonderful.”

Kenyon agreed. 'It was an amazing experience writing with Mary, and our friendship survived, and thrived with the experience,” she says. 'And it has also been wonderful to experience that ‘first book' feeling through Mary.”

The process of putting the book together was highly collaborative. The two women shared a prayer before every writing/editing session. 'Then we worked on each others strengths,” says Kenyon, noting that Humston is the better editor of the group while Kenyon had gone through the process before, with this publisher as well.

'I have a lot of good memories of working back and forth,” Humston says. 'We emailed more during this time of writing and editing than we did over 30 years of writing letters.”

The authors will be doing a reading and hosting a letter writing workshop at Barnes & Noble in Cedar Rapids on Sept. 19.

'We aim to save the world one sheet of stationery at a time,” Kenyon says.

The workshop is an opportunity to not only share what they have learned about letter writing, but also encourage people to write more letters.

'For Mary and me, writing letters has been an entirely normal thing,” Humston says. 'The basis of most of our friendship has been letter writing. It was crucial. But in today's world, electronic communications are so much faster. So we hope we can be part of a revival of letter writing. We are encouraging people to write a letter there or go home and write a letter to a friend they want to touch base with.”

The Marys also will be presenting at the Iowa City Book Festival coming up the first weekend of October and several other small town libraries throughout the area.

Kenyon, who now lives in Manchester, and Humston, who lives in Iowa City, are so excited that the book is now published, in apart so they can share it with others, but also so they can get back to letter writing.

'We missed writing each other,” Humston laughs. 'It sounds silly because we were in touch daily while we were working on the book, but we missed our handwritten letters. So we are glad to get back to that on a regular basis. It was a good feeling to see there was a letter from Mary in the mailbox again.”

If you go

What: Mary & Me: Letter Writing 101

When: 1 p.m. Sept. 19

Where: Barnes & Noble Cedar Rapids