NORTHFIELD — “Dear Queen Elizabeth, I am writing you today for a dear friend of mine. Her name is Sophie Fritz,” begins Allyssa Alger’s letter. “Sophie was born on the same day, same month, same year as you.”
“You read my letter and you look online, you Google search, and you see, you don’t write like that to the Queen,” said Alger, who lives in Northfield.
“I can’t believe you sent it,” said Sophie Fritz. “And on yellow lined paper.”
Sophie Fritz, who has lived in Northfield since 1951, and Queen Elizabeth II celebrated their 92nd birthdays two weeks ago, April 21.
Fritz grew up in Montague and went to Turners Falls High School. She still attends Our Lady of Czestochowa Church in Turners Falls.
Because Elizabeth II had been a public figure since they both were children, Fritz said that she has always been aware of the queen.
“She was really down to Earth. She was nice,” Fritz said. “I know that her father died young, probably (when she was) 18 or 20, and she had to take over his duties. So she was a really nice woman. … She had a good reputation.”
Alger, who also lives in Northfield and has been Fritz’s friend for 10 years, sent her letter on March 20 for the occasion of Fritz’s 92nd birthday, still a month away then. She admitted she knew the odds of getting a response were slim.
“Dear Mrs. Alger, The Queen wishes me to write and thank you for your letter,” begins the letter, which comes signed from Susan Hussey, Queen Elizabeth’s Lady-in-Waiting, “from which Her Majesty was interested to learn that your good friend, Sophie Fritz, will be celebrating her 92nd birthday soon.”
The Lady-in-Waiting, Fritz said, is like a “personal secretary” for the Queen.
“She’s the one who brings it to the Queen if it’s of importance,” Alger said.
Alger got the letter the day after Fritz’s birthday. The delay was apparently caused by delivery time. The letter is hand-dated “17th April,” four days before the two women’s birthdays, and the envelope is postmarked the next day.
“When I got that in the mail, at first I thought it was junk mail,” Alger said, because of the “AIR MAIL” stamp on the envelope. “So I didn’t think nothing of it until I brought it in the house, put my glasses on and looked and I was like, ‘Oh my god, that’s from the queen.’”
The letter came to Alger, not Fritz, because she was the one who had mailed the original. When Alger realized what it was, she brought the letter to Fritz’s house, where they opened it.
Due to the volume of letters that the queen receives, the letter said, the queen normally has a strict policy of sending congratulation letters to British subjects for a “Diamond Wedding Anniversary” (60th anniversary) or for a 100th birthday.
“Her Majesty, however, was touched to learn of your friend’s support for her over the years, and I hope she has a very happy birthday on 21st April.”
“It was nice that they picked one out,” Fritz said. “They probably throw thousands of them away. … I couldn’t believe it for weeks. Had to keep reading it over and over.”
Fritz said she plans to frame the letter as a keepsake.
Fritz lives on a farm in Northfield with a large red barn, though she doesn’t have animals anymore. “I don’t even have a cat now,” she said. “Nothing at all. I’m not gonna be tied down to anything.”
She said she has received many offers to sell the farm, but has never considered doing so. She appreciates the quiet of her land, now that it is no longer a functioning farm.
“The whole neighborhood’s kids used to come over here all the time and play. It was a place to gather,” Fritz said.
“They came for her cooking, too,” Alger said. “Oh boy can she cook. She’s done me in with her pies.”
“Now I like to be alone,” Fritz said. “This was a public place, not a private place.”
Contact Max Marcus at 413-772-0261, ext. 261, or mmarcus@recorder.com.