Nearly two decades ago, a woman tossed a message in a bottle off the coast of Massachusetts. She was shocked to get a call saying it was found so many years later by a boy in Nova Scotia.
According to The Gloucester Daily Times, Rita Ganim went to Wheelers Point in Massachusetts in August of 2000 to visit her daughter and son-in-law. While there, she and her family took a sunset cruise up the Annisquam River. That’s when she decided to throw a message in a bottle overboard.
“We don’t get around to the ocean that much,” Ganim, 80, said. “I decided I’m not going to be boring. I just said I’d love to throw a bottle with a message inside into the water, but I didn’t want to hurt the environment.”
Her family encouraged her to pen the message and throw it in a plastic bottle. On a piece of paper she wrote “Hi Friend, I’m a visitor to Gloucester. I hope you will let me know if/when you find this. Cheers, Rita”. She also included her email address at the bottom of the letter. As soon as she was done, she tossed it in the water and forgot about doing it shortly after.
Almost 20 years later, 11-year-old Dallas Goreham of Nova Scotia was walking around the coastline near his home in Woods Harbour. His mom, Tara Goreham, says he was searching for sea glass. Sea glass has existed since glass-making was first introduced, before 2000 B.C. in Mesopotamia, and can be found all over the world. On his hunt, Dallas found something, but it wasn’t what he was initially looking for.
Washed up the coast was a plastic bottle with a note rolled up inside. He planned on throwing it out, but then noticed the paper. When he got home, he and his mom opened the bottle, not knowing it had traveled at least 250 miles. They read the letter and saw Rita’s email. The two tried to send a message to the address, but it was no longer active. So, Tara took to the internet and found Rita’s name on something published in the Buffalo News.
After finding the Buffalo News article, Tara contacted the paper, explained her situation, and asked for Rita’s new email address. She sent a message to Rita and told her all about how her son found the message in the bottle that was tossed off the boat in Massachusetts. The New York Post says they’ve been exchanging messages and Rita hopes to one day meet both of them.