In 2012, according to The Olympian, Mattie and Jake Harrison sealed their wedding vows to each other in a bottle and set them adrift to mark the start of their journey through life together.

Mattie and Jake Harrison with the letters they wrote to each other for their wedding, before sending them out to sea. Photo Courtesy: Mattie and Jake Harrison / The Olympian

What IS surprising, if you ask me, is that the bottle has since been found at least 3 times!

According to The Olympian, when 17 year old Camille Folweiler found the bottle over Memorial Day Weekend of 2016, she discovered that the bottle already had two other notes crammed in alongside the vows from Mattie and Jake, both of which wished them luck.

Mattie and Jake’s Letters in a Bottle. Photo Courtesy: Mattie and Jake Harrison / The Olympian

Finding the bottle “felt very movie-ish, sort of old-fashioned,” Folweiler told The Olympian, describing Mattie and Jake’s letters as “adorable”.

Mattie and Jake only included their first names in their letters, but Folweiler couldn’t stop thinking about the message and the people who were behind it. She felt she simply had to find them! Amazingly, after months of searching, she found Mattie and Jake’s wedding website where Mattie’s mother’s name was listed. The rest is history–she reached out and let Mattie and Jake know their note had been found several times and was still on its journey.

The letters Camille Folweiler found in the bottle with Mattie and Jake’s original letters to each other. Photo Courtesy: Mattie and Jake Harrison / Camille Folweiler / The Olympian

How is it, I wonder, that messages in bottles so often seem to connect the “right” people? I mean, if Camille Folweiler hadn’t found their bottle, Mattie and Jake might never have heard of its ongoing journey. Folweiler, who wants to study oceanography in college, must have an intensely curious mind and a kind heart. She gave Mattie and Jake a great gift by telling them of their bottle.

Of the experience, Mattie told The Olympian, “This experience has renewed our love for each other, and shown us the kindness and thoughtfulness of strangers.”

This is the incredible, impossible power of messages in bottles, pointed out again by a chance discovery, and an even more unlikely connection between the senders and the finder. Camille Folweiler was the third person to find the bottle, and her response, along with the other two, was pure encouragement and kindness. I don’t know about you, but I like those figures. That’s a 100% rate of kindness among people who have found Mattie and Jake’s bottle. Not bad, humanity. Not bad! If only we could get that success rate out in the real world. Can you imagine–strangers being kind to each other all the time? Messages in bottles prove to me that such a world is possible. That’s a world I look forward to building. We can do it.

Mattie and Jake Harrison, clearly still in love 🙂 Photo Courtesy: Mattie and Jake Harrison / The Olympian