Beachgoer Finds Ashes in Bottle, Message to Woman’s Daughter Goes Viral

A grieving daughter placed her mom’s ashes in a bottle so she could finally see the world. Not long after, a stranger found the bottle — and her message to the woman’s daughter went viral.

In February, Cara Melia’s mom, 51-year-old Wendy Chadwick, died of a heart condition, the BBC and the Manchester Evening News reported. The mom of five never got a chance to travel the globe, which her family decided to rectify after her death. 

“For a long time she looked after her late brother and her mum as their carer,” Melia, 24, told the paper.

Chadwick also loved the beach, so Melia originally considered scattering her ashes on the beach during a recent trip to Skegness, a town in England along the coast of the North Sea. 

“But my best friend thought of the bottle idea and put her out to sea,” Melia continued, according to the Manchester Evening News. “I wrote the note because I wanted her to finally get to travel because she didn’t get to before she passed.”

“This is my mum. Throw her back in,” the note read. “She’s travelling the world. Thanks, Cara, Oldham, UK.” 

Melia said a final goodbye to her mom, but just 12 hours later, the bottle was found by somebody visiting a beach in Skegness, the BBC reported. A Facebook post about the discovery soon went viral.

“Can everyone please share this far and wide in hope it finds Cara from Oldham!!” wrote Kelly Sheridan on Tuesday, June 3, captioning a picture of the bottle, note and a video of a boy tossing the bottle back into the water. “We found this lovely lady earlier today at Butlins, Skegness beach,” she continued. “She’s been thrown back in the sea as requested.. happy travels Cara’s Mum.” 

While Melia was grateful her mom’s ashes had been returned to the North Sea (“Thank you for throwing her back in,” she responded on Facebook), she hoped the initial journey would be longer.

“Nobody was meant to find her for a bit,” she told the BBC. “She was meant to be in a completely different country.”

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But Melia thinks her mom would be tickled by the discovery. Chadwick was a “very quirky kind of person,” said Melia, who told the outlet her mom would be giggling over the news.

Now that her mom has been returned to the sea, she hopes the next trip will be longer.

“I am hoping she goes further this time and finally gets a chance to travel the world,” Melia told the Manchester Evening News. “It seems to have touched so many people.”