Austrian visitor wants to find her long-lost pen pal
AN AUSTRIAN visitor hoped to solve a mystery during a trip to the island and track down a long-lost pen friend.
Waltraud Milalkovits from Gramatneusiedl, which is close to Vienna, was with a group of Austrian tourists as part of an island-hopper trip which included Jersey and Sark.
She had brought with her one of the letters from her pen-friend, Liz Fitzgerald.
The two girls started writing in 1968 as part of a school exchange.
‘At school we wrote out these little papers and we took one and there was an address and we wrote our first letter to this address.’
At the time she wrote to the Guernsey girl, Mrs Milalkovits said she would have been using the shorter form of her name, Traude, and her maiden name, Dorner.
After becoming friends they even spent time in each other’s communities, with Liz spending five weeks at school in Austria and Mrs Milalkovits coming to Guernsey.
Mrs Milalkovits said she had received about 20 letters over the years.
‘Sometimes she wrote in German, sometimes in English,’ she said.
She had held on to two of them which showed that Liz used to live at La Collette in the Green Lanes, St Peter Port.
‘She wanted to be a doctor,’ said Mrs Milalkovits.
‘I don’t know if she managed it.’
Despite internet searches she had not been able to track down any information.
Mrs Milalkovits herself wanted to be either a teacher or to work in a hotel. She ended up taking up the role of teacher for children with special needs.
Although only in the island a short time, she said that if she was able to be put in contact with Liz she would come back to visit her.
n Anyone who knows Liz can get in touch with the Guernsey Press by emailing newseditor@guernseypress.com and the newspaper will pass on Mrs Milalkovits’ email address.
