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Pen pal recalls friendship with Ali

Muhammad Ali receives a visit from pen pal Stephanie Meade in 2014.
Muhammad Ali receives a visit from pen pal Stephanie Meade in 2014.

The Seattle woman who had a longtime pen pal relationship with Muhammad Ali is expressing her gratitude to the Postal Service.

In 1981, 10-year-old Stephanie Meade wrote a letter to the boxing champ, whom she idolized. She didn’t know his address, so she mailed it to “Muhammad Ali, Los Angeles, California.”

Three weeks later, a handwritten response from Ali arrived.

“God bless the Postmaster or postal worker who got my letter to him,” Meade tells the latest edition of “Your Postal Podcast.”

Over the years, she sent more letters to Ali.

“He would write back without fail every single time,” Meade says

Meade and Ali met in 1991, and again in 2014.

He died in June after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. Even though the illness eventually robbed him of the ability to write, Ali’s wife encouraged Meade to continue their correspondence.

“She said, ‘Stephanie, keep writing and I’ll read the letters to him. I’ll make sure he gets the letters,’” Meade says.

“So even though he wasn’t able to respond to me anymore, she made sure my letters were reaching him.”

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