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Category Archives: Romance

Wedding Message in a Bottle Mystery from Nova Scotia Solved After 17 Years

03 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by Clint Buffington | Message in a Bottle Hunter in message in a bottle, Romance

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Canada, message in a bottle, Nova Scotia, wedding

***UPDATE***

I published the following post about a wedding message in a bottle on January 3rd, 2018. A few days later, on January 7th, Frank commented on the story below, and Judy contacted me separately. They contacted me separately because they are no longer together. I am withholding their last names out of respect for all involved. The day after they contacted me, Frank also spoke with Global News and explained that the sentiments in the message were “true at the time” but also expressed that he did not want to obsess over the past.

In her email to me, Judy, a kind and sweet woman, also focused on the future. She described the find as “quite a surprise!” Judy added that she “had forgotten Frank did this.” In her email, Judy reminded me of something important. She said that there is “Always hope for tomorrow.” Messages in bottles do not always have the happiest endings, but when they begin their journeys, we fill them with our hopes and dreams. Like the ocean, the world is a turbulent place, and things change in our lives all the time. And even though Frank and Judy walk separate paths today, I, for one, think that our ability to have hope for the future despite the turbulence of life is one of the very best things about humans.

I want to thank everyone involved in this story–Danita, Frank, and Judy–for sharing a rather bittersweet story, and allowing me to share it here.

And that, I suppose, is all there is to say about this message in a bottle. Check out the original story below about the search for Frank and Judy if you haven’t yet.

Wedding Message in a Bottle Discovered in Nova Scotia

Many thanks to Danita Hirtle-Sawler, who sent in this story and these photos. Danita relates the story of her father, who found a wedding message in a bottle that is lovely and mysterious.

“My dad, who passed in 2001, found this bottle along the shoreline leading down to Oak Island, Nova Scotia. I believe he found it at his cabin close by the water in 2000. I hope maybe some day I can find the sender.”

Frank and Judy's Wedding Message in a Bottle - Bottle with Rolled Up Message

Frank and Judy’s Wedding Message in a Bottle. Photo: Danita Hirtle-Sawler.

Here’s the message he found inside:

Frank and Judy's Wedding Message in a Bottle - Full Message

Frank and Judy’s Wedding Message in a Bottle, Dated April 15th, 2000. Photo: Danita Hirtle-Sawler.

A Message of Love and Faith

It’s a wedding message!

April 15, 2000

Frank and Judy were wedd in the sight of God. If this is ever found, please know that these two people are extremely happy in their faith and in each other.

I tell you, there is nothing like an honest-to-goodness, romantic message in a bottle to brighten my day. This one reminds me of other wedding day messages in bottles like this sweet story, and a different one that is still unsolved–click here for that story (maybe YOU are the missing link!). It’s interesting to reflect on the fact that Nicholas Sparks’s famous Message in a Bottle book came out just a couple years before Frank and Judy sent this message in a bottle. Makes you wonder if that’s what inspired the note.

Of course, there is a sad element to this story. Danita’s father passed away in 2001, and never had a change to find and connect with the senders. But, as she mentioned in her message to me, she does hope to find the senders, Frank and Judy, who were married on April 15th, 2000.

Where did the Wedding Message in a Bottle Come From?

Well, this is a tricky question. The Labrador Current runs southward and westward along the southern shore of Nova Scotia. The bottle could have started out north and east of the Halifax area. From there, it would have drifted south and west on the Labrador Current. Finally, it would have been swept into the bay where Oak Island is.

On the other hand, the message was sent in 2000, and also found in 2000. Most likely, it didn’t travel terribly far. If it had been in the open ocean, it could have covered hundreds of miles between being sent and found. So it’s possible that it started out closer to Oak Island–like maybe in St. Margaret’s Bay, or the bay Oak Island itself is in. Of course, it could have come from senders based in Halifax or Dartmouth, or pretty much any of the coastal areas in the above map.

Personally, I bet Frank and Judy are Canadian, and I bet they sent their message from somewhere within the bounds of the map above.

Almost 18 years have passed since Frank and Judy married and sent their message to commemorate the day. Wouldn’t it be great if we could let them know their wedding message in a bottle was found? And just think: if we do that, we can also put them in touch with Danita!

***If you liked this story, click here to find me on Facebook and like my page for more message in a bottle stories! YOU could be the next one to solve a message in a bottle mystery! Click here to learn more about messages in bottles, and you can always contact me with questions, ideas, or stories.

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Frank Hayostek’s Christmas 1945 Message in a Bottle: Love, Letters, and WWII

18 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by Clint Buffington | Message in a Bottle Hunter in history, message in a bottle, Romance

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Frank Hayostek, love, message in a bottle, romance, World War II, WWII

Christmas 1945: A Lonely Soldier and a Letter in a Bottle

Frank Hayostek and Breda O’Sullivan captured the hearts of millions in the somber but celebratory days after World War II. How? Simply, a message in a bottle, sent by Frank at the end of WWII.

Frank With Big Aspirin Bottle

Here’s Frank Hayostek, stuffing a note into an Aspirin bottle, like he did on Christmas night, 1945.

Continue reading →

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The Lighthouse Keeper’s Tale: A Message in a Bottle Story

28 Wednesday Jun 2017

Posted by Clint Buffington | Message in a Bottle Hunter in Friendship, history, Love, message in a bottle, Romance

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Lighthouse, message in a bottle, Penpal, St. Gilles Croix de Vie, Thacher Island

Hello, Lighthouse!

I would like to tell you a message in a bottle story that is equally heartwarming and heartbreaking. It all starts with a lighthouse on a lonely island, a devoted lighthouse keeper, and a New Year’s tradition. When I think of it now, it puts me in mind of one of my daughter’s favorite books, Hello, Lighthouse! by Sophie Blackall. Blackall’s book even notes the tradition of lighthouse keepers sending messages in bottles. Hello, Lighthouse! begins (with emphases provided by my daughter): “On the hiiiighest rock, of a tiiiiiny island, at the eeeedge of the world stands a lighthouse…”

Hello, Lighthouse book cover showing showing a lighthouse standing on a rock surrounded by ocean.

A Brief History of the Thacher Island Lighthouse(s)

Our story begins: On the hiiiighest rock, of a tiiiiny island, off the coast of Massachusetts, stands a lighthouse. This lighthouse stands on Thacher Island, a world unto itself.

 

Satellite view of Thacher Island

In the early days of America–when we were still colonies, actually–there were a great number of shipwrecks in the area. In fact, Thacher Island takes its name from a shipwreck survivor: Anthony Thacher. He and his wife Elizabeth were the lone survivors of an awful shipwreck in 1635. Dozens of others, including their five children, were swept away.

Shipwrecks continued around Thacher Island. This led to none other than John Hancock petitioning the provincial government to build lighthouses Thacher Island. The lighthouses fired up in 1771. According to the video below, these were the last lighthouses to be built in America by the British colonial government

In the following years of conflict, it appeared that the lighthouses were helping the British fleet navigate the area more than they were helping captains and colonists avoid wrecks. So, a company of minutemen headed to the island in 1775 where they destroyed the lights and brought the lighthouse keeper and his family back to the mainland. Eventually, the lighthouses were restored to operation and taken over by the new government of the United States. As the video above explains, George Washington directed Alexander Hamilton to appoint keepers for the nation’s lighthouses, and he did–including for Thacher Island.

Lighthouse Keepers Return to Thacher Island

According to the Thacher Island Association, “The present 123-foot granite towers were completed in 1861 raising the lights to 166 feet above sea level.” About a century later, in 1983, The Thacher Island Association took over care for the island. They restored the lighthouses and keepers’ homes, and began operating the lighthouses with the help of volunteers. This is where volunteer Lighthouse Keeper Ann Hernandez comes into the picture!

Thacher Island Association photo with lighthouse 1Thacher Island Association photo with lighthouse 2

A Message in a Bottle Tradition

According to The Boston Globe, “Each year on her birthday, Ann Hernandez and her boyfriend, Alan Tomaska, would settle on the rocky shore of Thacher Island and uncork a bottle of champagne in a toast to the day. When the bottle was empty and the tide going out, Hernandez would tuck a handwritten message inside and Tomaska would hurl the bottle over the rocks and into the crashing surf.”

Thacher Island with Lighthouses - Tim Pierce - Wikipedia

Thacher Island and its duel lighthouses. This is the rocky coast where Ann Hernandez sat with her partner on her birthday in 2003. They drank a bottle of champagne, then sent a message out in it.

I always wonder what makes someone send a message in a bottle. What do they hope for? Ann, for example. Did she want a penpal? Maybe she just wanted to see where it would end up? Maybe I read too much into these things, but I wonder: was there something in Ann that made her long for the outside world? For adventure beyond her own daily sphere? She already spent her summers tending the lighthouse on Thacher Island. Ann must have been an adventurous person.

Lighthouse Keeper’s Message in a Bottle, Found!

Six years after sending one of these bottles, a French couple found it washed ashore in their tiny village.

Ann Hernandez Message in a Bottle - The Lighthouse Keeper's Tale

Ann Hernandez’s Message in a Bottle. Photo: Michel and Daniele Onesime / Boston.com

When they looked for Ann, they found that she had passed away unexpectedly the year before they found her note. During her lifetime, according to Boston.com, only one of her bottles was found. It surfaced “in Marshfield, a place that Hernandez dismissed as not exotic enough to merit excitement.”

But according to her friends, “A quaint fishing village on the western coast of France…was just the sort of place where Hernandez would have loved to see her message in a bottle land.”

St_gilles.jpg

The French village where Ann’s bottle was found, St. Gilles Croix de Vie. Photo: Wikipedia user Splashview.

The French folks who found her bottled note felt the inexplicable power of messages in bottles to connect people. In fact, they befriended Ann’s friends and family! They hoped to visit Thacher Island and the lighthouse that was a home away from home for Ann.

In the meantime, the discovery of the note was a powerful reminder of Ann’s life for her friends and family. It’s the same with so many messages in bottles: Her friends and family must have believed they would never hear from Ann again. But then, all of a sudden, they did.

To me, that’s as close to magic as we can get.

For More on Messages in Bottles

Follow me on Instagram and Facebook where I post new stories, or sign up to receive new blog posts via email. Check out my digital message in a bottle museum for examples of real messages in bottles, see my list of the oldest messages in bottles, or read my analyses of messages in bottles in pop culture, from Taylor Swift to Sting & the Police and beyond!

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Photo In A Bottle Found: Who Are The Men In This Photo?

13 Saturday May 2017

Posted by Clint Buffington | Message in a Bottle Hunter in Flaschenpost, Friendship, Love, message in a bottle, Mystery Message, plastic, Pollution, Romance

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Friendship, Help, Inspiration, love, message in a bottle, send your love away

Surprising Photo in a Bottle Found in Belgium

Manon van der Molen is the kind of person who picks up trash off the beach. Plenty of people get upset about plastic trash at sea, mucking up our beaches. But Manon? She actually does something about it. That’s how she stumbled upon a photo in a bottle.

“I hate all the trash in the ocean,” Manon told me. A kindred spirit! She has even volunteered with the Archelon Marine Turtle Protection Association.

“My kids are amazed by all the plastic in the ocean and do not understand why people do that. See–even kids understand!” Indeed. I think kids often understand these things better than adults. It’s obvious, even to children, that too many of us are not taking care of the ocean. But we could.

So, when Manon was walking the beach with her family–her husband and three kids–on May 5th, 2017, at De Haan, Belgium, she was picking up plastic trash. That’s a great way to help! And sometimes, among the trash, we stumble upon a little “treasure”–a reward for cleaning the beach, in the form of an unexpected human connection. A reminder, perhaps, that while most of what’s floating around in the ocean is simply trash that shouldn’t be there, still…maybe, just maybe, one in a billion or so pieces of flotsam can create an amazing and beautiful connection between strangers.

“That’s when I found the tube,” she told Continue reading →

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Fearless Explorers: Cremated Sailors of the Seven Seas

11 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by Clint Buffington | Message in a Bottle Hunter in Adventure, Love, message in a bottle, ocean currents, Romance

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Biker Bob, Brian Lynn, Canoe to Ketchikan, cremated, Family, Gary Robert Dupuis, Gordon Skinny Smith, human ashes in a bottle, John Lea, Mel Stanley, message in a bottle

Ashes in a Bottle Become Popular “Final Journey” For Deceased Loved Ones

Life is such an amazing adventure that most folks don’t want it to end. And when it inevitably does, some send their loved ones on a final journey–but putting cremated ashes in a bottle and sending it to sea. In recent years, a number of beachcombers have stumbled upon human ashes in bottles. In every case, the person whose ashes are in the bottle was deeply loved by their family, and the family chose this gesture as a way of honoring the person’s love of travel or desire to see the world.

Personally, my favorite version of this memorial is the kind that implores the finder to share a drink with the “person” whose ashes are in the bottle.

If you find human remains in a bottle tomorrow, I guarantee a stiff drink is going to make you feel less nervous. Continue reading →

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Message in a Bottle Wedding Vows to Danielle Found in Cancun

02 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by Clint Buffington | Message in a Bottle Hunter in Love, message in a bottle, Romance

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

cancun, Danielle, Excellence Riviera, message in a bottle, Puerto Morelos, wedding vows

Couple Discovers Bottled Wedding Vows in Cancun

A while back, a reader wrote to me of a lovely message in a bottle he and his wife found while they were on vacation at Excellence Riviera Cancun north of Puerto Morelos, Mexico, in November of 2014. The message in a bottle contained heartfelt wedding vows to “Danielle”. Now, I hope to help find the person who sent that message in a bottle. But I need your help!

Here’s where the bottle was found:

screen-shot-2017-03-01-at-7-26-17-am

Continue reading →

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