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Seventeen years ago, while on a family day out in Rhyl, North Wales, then-seven-year-old Emily Edwards decided to send out her own message in a bottle after she’d seen the 1999 romcom movie of that name. She never expected to see her note again.
But last week the bottle washed up on a beach in Nefyn, Wales, almost 96km from where Emily – now a 25-year-old mother – had dropped it.
Emily, who’s an assistant manager at a taxi firm, said she was really surprised to hear her message had been found.
“I phoned my dad looking for confirmation that I wasn’t going mad, but he confirmed that I did send the message as a seven-year-old,” she said.
“So when I told him the message had been found he thought it was as crazy as I did. I just wrote my name, postcode and ‘a message in a bottle’, so people would know what it was.
“Unfortunately the message I actually wrote to myself on the piece of paper had washed off, and I just can’t remember it.”
Londoner Sam Hammond was visiting his mother, Sue Cookson, and had gone for a run on the beach when he stumbled across the note which featured Emily’s name, an address and a postal code.
He showed it to Sue who became determined to track down the original sender, posting an appeal on Facebook which was shared hundreds of times.
The post was spotted by a friend of Emily’s who asked her if she could’ve written the note – and when she saw it she was stunned to recognise her own handwriting.
“Sue’s son found it and she thought it would be fun to try to find out who sent the message,” Emily said.
“My friend, whom I’ve known for 18 years, sent me a message and a screenshot of the find, asking if I lived on that street that long ago.
“I don’t think Sue ever expected to find the person who wrote it.”
Sources: Magazine Features
Pictures: CATERS/WWW.MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA
