Balloon Buddies A Balloon Message Found 12 Years Ago Spawned A Warm, Enduring Relationship

For Ryan Reedy’s wish to come true, there had to be a bit of magic in the air.

Temperatures had to keep heavy, water-laden clouds at a high elevation. Winds had to be stiff, but not angry. Air pressure had to be as steady as a zeppelin.

And Mary Dobrocane, a 68-year-old Canadian farmer, had to be a little curious.

“It’s pretty incredible,” said Reedy, 17.

Twelve years ago, the Riverside High School senior let go of a helium balloon, hoping like most six-year-olds that his name and address inside would find a strange and exotic land.

The balloon found Dobrocane’s wheat field in Milk River, Alberta, about 240 miles away.

“I ran over it the first time,” said Dobrocane, laughing. The second time around the field she stopped her tractor, wondering about that silver thing. “I thought I might get a prize if it went far enough,” she said.

The magic doesn’t end with a meteorology lesson. For the last 12 years, Reedy and Dobrocane have regularly exchanged letters - Dobrocane sharing her difficulties in tending and living on her 300-acre farm alone, and Reedy writing about each of his baby steps toward adulthood.

Family reunions and algebra lessons, inclement weather and varsity tennis matches. Christmas cards and birthday wishes.

“When I find a friend, I keep with him,” said Dobrocane. “And he is a good lookin’ kid. Too bad I’m so old.”

Reedy is a polite, quiet youth who is preparing to be a volunteer fireman, calls adults “mister” and “missus,” and is a safe bet for your teenage daughter. He raises prized pigs and hopes eventually to be a dental hygienist.

He is nervous about graduating. “I like high school. Getting out in the real world - it’s kinda scary,” he said.

He never expected a response when he let go of the balloon as a Riverside Elementary first-grader. He was the only one in his class to hear from someone.

“I thought it would land in the forest or something,” Reedy said.

But as soon as Dobrocane wrote, he did the same. They exchanged pictures and weather reports.

“I got up this morning and looked out the window and there they were on my lawn … a Buck and Doe. The Buck must have been in the hay bales, cause he has blue string all wrapped around his horns and dragging out 20 ft of string behind him,” Dobrocane wrote last November.

The correspondence meandered along, although Reedy was always faithful. “If he can write to me, he must be a good kid,” said Dobrocane. “A lot wouldn’t even have written.”

Four years ago, on a clear August day, the Reedy family dropped by Dobrocane’s farm. They stomped through her massive garden - she plans to plant 12 rows of potatoes this spring - and looked at old farm equipment.

Reedy was impressed with her rugged tenacity. She has never married or had children, and has farmed alone for almost 30 years after taking over for her parents. She “wastes time” by building huge, complex puzzles, which she usually mounts and puts on her wall.

Most mornings, Dobrocane gets up before dawn in the blue-black cold of the Alberta prairie to feed her cows and five calves. During a recent freeze, she had to sit in the barn in 35-below weather to make sure the calves were all right.

“It’s very sandy and don’t produce, but this is home and you make do what you can,” said Dobrocane.

Reedy would like her to come to Chattaroy this summer, and Dobrocane might oblige. The local government is considering a highway bypass that would cut across her farm. With land already given over to railroad tracks and a river, the road would reduce her plot “to ‘bout nothing.”

Reedy said he would also like to visit Dobrocane and her garden again. He sometimes thinks about her while he tends his own garden.

“I sit by the tomatoes and wonder what she is doing,” Reedy said.

He also shyly confessed to sending up a second balloon after hearing back from Dobrocane, but hasn’t gotten a response. “You never know,” he said. “You never know.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Photos (1 Color)