I was down on Brighton Beach this morning at sunrise (part of my ongoing photography project). As I was standing on the shore line a bottle with a letter in it washed up. I picked it up and could see the opening part of the letter which reads as follows:

‘Dear Mummy,

Happy Birthday Mummy.

To me your still a party animal 46 year old self. With your magic Coke (V&C). Even though your 53 your still a yummy mummy to me….’

Now I suspect this is a letter written by a daughter to her dead mother on the mother’s birthday.

The question is, would you take out the letter and read the rest of it?

One part of me feels that the writer wanted it to be found, which is why they wrote it and cast it into the sea. My experiences last week and this (I attended the funeral of the gentleman I helped the week before) have taught me that making human connections is a genuinely wonderful thing.

The other part of me feels there might be a privacy that needs to be respected.

What would you do?

Read on. It’s in the public domain. Besides, you’ll never know who it refers to.

The big question is, do you put it back in the ocean when you’ve finished?

It’s a credit to you that you feel so concerned about the ramifications of opening it.

I share a similar view to you. It’s meant to be read. You become part of the story.

Depending on content you might even want to add a personal line or 2 about how it made you smile/cry what ever you think really.

Whether that’s appropriate or not is down to the contents of the letter and your own feelings about it.

Either way,I would read it, then carefully reseal it and throw it out on an outgoing tide so the story can continue.

What would you do?

I’d bin it, it’s litter.

I’d bin it, it’s litter.

Hero 🙄

I’d bin it, it’s litter.

Recycle it, do you have no thought for the environment

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbXWrmQW-OE[/video]

Too ez. 😆

‘Mr Sting, did you throw the bottle overarm or underarm? When you threw it did you let off a little tommy squeaker?’

What would you do?

Inform the Police 😆

wrightyson – Member

I’d bin it, it’s litter.

Hero [/quote]Is this you? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-40738484 People who dump messages in bottles are up there with the fannies who mass release ballons or chinese lanterns and leave memorial tat all over the place.

Take out the letter, correct the spelling/punctuation and chuck it back out to sea.

Take the letter out, put a photo of you in along with a few “amendments” to the original words then inform the DailyWhail claiming all manner of the originators estate.

HTHs.

Too ez.

Lazy sod. There must be loads of jokes you could’ve used instead of an obvious vid link.

Can’t think of any but there must be loads…

Well it was intended to be found by someone and read, seems fate has decided that someone is you.

‘Mr Sting, did you throw the bottle overarm or underarm? When you threw it did you let off a little tommy squeaker?’

😆

Is this you? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-40738484 People who dump messages in bottles are up there with the fannies who mass release ballons or chinese lanterns and leave memorial tat all over the place.

Proper human being, aren’t you? So good to see your deep concern for the environment, there must be millions a few dozen bottles with letters in bobbing around in the world’s oceans… 🙄

Shame that quite a poignant and interesting thread has been sent off on such a negative tangent. For no other reason that it could be.

Don’t get the mentality?

I know this is stw but come on, vent you’re anger on the referendum/Trump threads instead?

Shame that quite a poignant and interesting thread has been sent off on such a negative tangent. For no other reason that it could be.

Indeed. As soon as Babylon was mentioned it took a real nosedive…

Mawkish drivel, correct spelling mistakes and chuck it back in, might give someone a laugh.

More guff

When I was about eight, I threw a letter in a bottle into our local river claiming I’d been kidnapped and giving my home address. Two weeks later, a woman and two kids turned up, closely followed by a cop car.

No more letters in bottles for me (or pudding for a few weeks).

You can only make, or break the connection by reading the letter,

My feeling is it was there to be found, share what you find of needs be.

I’m going to read it tomorrow….

yeah, it deserves to be.

Not sure we deserve you know what it says frankly. 🙁

seosamh77 – Member
Well it was intended to be found by someone and read, seems fate has decided that someone is you.

Not necessarily. When my wife’s dad died she did something along similar lines. Our five-year-old did get a bit upset but it’s hard to know whether he was just picking up on and ‘fitting in’ with the emotions of those around him, or whether he was old enough to fully grasp the concept of death, and get upset.

Anyhow, at one point my wife suggested they make some paper boats together, write messages to dad/grandad and go and float them off to sea on an outgoing tide. I think it was as much for her, finding it quite cathartic to get some feelings written down, as it was a way for our son to cope.

These were paper boats so were probably saturated and under water within an hour, but it could just as easily been bottles with notes in that would eventually washed up somewhere. Either way, there was no intended recipient, it’s all about the writing and sending the note as part of the grieving process.

About 20 yrs ago sailing across the Pacific to Esmeraldas wrote a note,chucked in 5 USD for whoever found it and thought none of it. 3 years later I got a letter from a young Filipino boy telling me he had found the bottle near his village whilst fishing.

Interesting 15 minute drama on just such a situation I listened to last week,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p70pd

I would read it out of curiosity then bin it.

I dislike the implication that being 53 is not compatible with being yummy.

More like “chewy” I’d have thought.