More than one penpal?

[Ninidi]

Hy there,

it is a fortnight ago that I sent my first letter to Paul who will hopefully become my penpal. I know that I have to be patient. He is on California deathrow and it will take at least two weeks for my letter to reach him. So I haven´t got an answer from him so far.

Since then I saw penpal requests of two other inmates who are seeking someone to write to them. I felt that I wanted to write to these two men, too.

Do you think I can do this? Or is it better to wait and look how the contact to Paul will develope?

Greetings from Germany
Nicole

[Mo-DAWG]

Ninidi said:

Hy there,

it is a fortnight ago that I sent my first letter to Paul who will hopefully become my penpal. I know that I have to be patient. He is on California deathrow and it will take at least two weeks for my letter to reach him. So I haven´t got an answer from him so far.

Since then I saw penpal requests of two other inmates who are seeking someone to write to them. I felt that I wanted to write to these two men, too.

Do you think I can do this? Or is it better to wait and look how the contact to Paul will develope?

Greetings from Germany
Nicole

Dear Nicole,

if ya make friends with people in the outside world you have more than one friend in your life of course...right?....same with Death Row inmates, feel free to have more than one friend as long as you can make sure you´re gonna stay with your friends and won´t leave them if a friendship with a certain inmate should get deeper. The reason why i mention this point is: many DR inmates have a long history of abandonment in their lifes and being on DR made it even worse for them since abandonment often went on with those they least expected to leave them. So please be sure who you REALLY wanna write and why..and be sure you really wanna STAY with your friends.
In general i can tell you one thing for sure: you will have to face hard times sumtimes and somewhen, so ask yourself if you would still stand by them if the worst case would happen: Would you be able to stand by their side and still be a real friend if an execution date came up? Would ya be strong enough to handle a situation like that? Please think about my post before you finally decide to write a DR inmate.
Mo-DAWG

[CCADP]

All of what MoDAWG says is true

One caveat - SOME prisoners prefer to write to someone who does not write other prisoners in the SAME prison; reason being it can create problems between prisoners; or the person may worry about personal issues somehow getting out to other prisoners etc.

This is not an issue for all prisoners; but some prisoners do bring up a preference to write to someone who is not writing someone else in the same prison...

[Maggie]

Nicole,

It does take awhile for them to get the mail.
I write to three people, and it has worked out well for me.
It's interesting how the relationship builds. I was writing once every three weeks or so just because of the time it was taking for them to get my letters and respond. One guy told me that once my letter gets there, he doesn't get it for at least another 10 days. Now I write more frequently, so that I'm not waiting so long in between letters and neither are my pen-pals.

I'm so very glad that I decided to write them. It means as much to me as it does them...... and you will find it means very much to them.

Good for you for taking that first step

[Ninidi]

Thank you very much for your replies.

I would never stop writing to an inmate who counts on me as long as there are no real reasons. I´ve heard of people who got nasty requests and that would be a reason for me to cancel such a contact. But I don´t think that such a thing will happen.

I know that I will be strong enough to get through hard times and even to stand it when a date has been set for my penpal.

The reason I wrote to Paul was that his request sounded as if we are like-minded people.

That same feeling came to me when I read the requests of two other men. Each one is incarcerated (is that the correct word for someone who is arrested and in Prison?) in another State so none of them will have a problem with the other.

The only fear I had was that it would be some kind of inappropriate to write to more than one inmate.

But, as Mo-DAWG said, I have more than one friend and so I guess you are right: It is no wrong in having more than one penpal as long as I take it seriously. Which I really do!

Thanks a lot for your opinions. They have been a gread decision-making aid for me!

I will write to another Inmate when I return from Holiday (22. - 29. of May).

It is really great that I can ask you such questions!

Cheers
Nicky

[Mo-DAWG]

Ninidi said:

Thank you very much for your replies.

I would never stop writing to an inmate who counts on me as long as there are no real reasons. I´ve heard of people who got nasty requests and that would be a reason for me to cancel such a contact. But I don´t think that such a thing will happen.

I know that I will be strong enough to get through hard times and even to stand it when a date has been set for my penpal.

The reason I wrote to Paul was that his request sounded as if we are like-minded people.

That same feeling came to me when I read the requests of two other men. Each one is incarcerated (is that the correct word for someone who is arrested and in Prison?) in another State so none of them will have a problem with the other.

The only fear I had was that it would be some kind of inappropriate to write to more than one inmate.

But, as Mo-DAWG said, I have more than one friend and so I guess you are right: It is no wrong in having more than one penpal as long as I take it seriously. Which I really do!

Thanks a lot for your opinions. They have been a gread decision-making aid for me!

I will write to another Inmate when I return from Holiday (22. - 29. of May).

It is really great that I can ask you such questions!

Cheers
Nicky

you are very welcome Nicky !!! have a great friendship with your buddiez !!!!!!
always
Mo-DAWG