A man finds a message in a bottle written by his late mother 24 years ago.
When Alex Melling was only 6 years old, his mother Valerie wrote a note about him, put it in a bottle, and tossed it into the sea. Sadly, Alex’s mom died of cancer when he was just 17.
The 30-year-old man living in Hindley, Wigan, recently stumbled upon something unbelievable. As he was scrolling through a Facebook group, he saw someone mentioning his childhood address. It was a post with the message his mom wrote 24 years ago.
The note was found by Rex Winter and his family on a remote Scottish beach, Daily Mail reveals.
When Alex got back the message written by his late mother, he gave it to his grandma, Lilian Wetherby, 86, who confirmed it was Valerie’s handwriting.
Reading the message and seeing her daughter’s handwriting made Lilian feel “very emotional.”
Alex shared:
“I have a vague memory of it happening. Although I don’t know where we were at the time. Reading my mum’s note was really nice as it was her handwriting and her words. My brother Daniel was buzzing and my grandma was really emotional. I will be keeping the bottle forever now with some other keepsakes. I can’t quite believe it.”
Rex Winter’s children found the letter in a bottle in a remote bay in the West of Scotland.
In the Facebook post he wrote about the message, he said:
“This summer my kids found a message in a bottle on a remote beach in the west of Scotland. It seemed to be old, and the message inside appeared to have been written by a child.
The message inside was from somebody called Alex, (no surname given) who gave an address in Hindley. There was no other information, date, or otherwise. My daughter wrote to Alex at that address some time ago but has had no reply. He/she may well have moved and/or the house is now unoccupied.
I don’t know if the bottle is 5 years old or 30 years old, but I’m sure that Alex would be interested to learn where it ended up! Is Alex reading this?
Or does anybody know who Alex might be?”
After seeing the publication, Alex contacted Winter’s family.
Izzy, Rex’s 17-year-old daughter, said:
“We were camping in Scotland and had taken a boat out in Garlieston, around Wigton Bay. We anchored the boat and went to explore in the caves. Freddie[her brother] found the bottle washed up and we could see a message in it.
The message was written on the back of a child’s birthday party invitation and read: ‘If found please return to [address], Hindley. Thank You. Please address to Alex.'”
When they couldn’t reach Alex after writing to the address in the note, Rex, a 62-year-old solicitor, decided to give Facebook a try. Izzy commented:
“My dad got really into it. He found a Facebook group called Hindley Residents and posted up that we were looking for Alex with a picture of the bottle.”
After Rex finally found who Alex was, he and his whole family got excited. In Izzy’s words, “We were just like: ‘Wow!'”
