Woman reunited with 53-year-old message in a bottle from her late sister
'It seems very miraculous to me that this note came back to me,' says Allison Spencer
Fifty-three years ago, Allison Spencer's mom sent her and her kid sister to the beach in Ocean City, N.J., with a mission: Write a message in a bottle, and cast it off to sea.
"She was always looking for ways to get us outside, out of the house," Spencer told As It Happens guest host Loren McInnis.
The two girls obliged. Laurie, then nine, concocted a dramatic story about being kidnapped by "ruthless sponge fishermen," while Allison, 16, faithfully transcribed the fanciful tale.
They rolled it up into a Coca-Cola bottle and set it adrift.
"I'm sure we expected it to be found pretty quickly," Spencer told As It Happens guest host Loren McInnis. "When it wasn't, I never gave it another thought for 53 years."
That is, until last month, when John Kauterman came upon the perfectly preserved note while cleaning up New Jersey's wetlands.
"When John showed me a picture of the note, it shocked me into remembrance," Spencer said.
"My sister passed away nine years ago. She had breast cancer, and she died only in her 50s and I really miss her a lot. So it's really a wonderful, special thing to me that the note came back."
LISTEN | John Kauterman and Allison Spencer speak to As It Happens:Kauterman, co-founder of the non-profit Tidelands Initiative, has been picking trash on his state's wetlands for several years now. Messages in bottles, he says, are a dime a dozen.
"I can come across possibly one a week, or one a month," he said.
But this one, he says, was special.
"I was like, 'wow … the bottle's old,'" he said. "I peeked into it and I could see the first line that said, 'This was set adrift on August 20th, 1973.' And I was like, oh my gosh, yeah, we got a good one here."
He fished out the rest of the note, and posted a photo of it on a local Facebook page, where it quickly found its way to back Spencer in Ann Arbor, Mich., where she now lives.
The letter reads:
"This bottle was set adrift on August 20th, 1973, on Second Street Beach, Ocean City, as my captors were transporting me to an island offshore in the Atlantic. Please notify my family that a band of ruthless sponge fishermen are forcing me to dive for them in shark-infested waters. Please return this note to my home."
It's signed "You may have saved my life! Thank you! Laurie Blair."
It was classic Laurie, says Spencer.
"Laurie's the one with the imagination and always coming up with crazy stories," she said. "It seems very miraculous to me that this note came back to me."
Spencer, a lifelong biology teacher has since struck up a friendship with Kauterman, and hopes to visit him the next time she's in New Jersey.
"I believe that the series of events that result in a miracle are first set into when people with good hearts are doing good works. And that is John," she said.
"Anyone who's taking care of the environment is tops in my book, and then the fact that he cared enough to try and reach out and find me is just very special."
Kauterman says he gets "a little choked up" hearing Spencer speak so kindly of him.
The feeling, he says, is mutual.
"She's really well spoken and just a wonderful lady and, you know, just being able to give her something that she was really grateful for makes all the work a little bit more meaningful," he said.
- She found a grandma's heartfelt letter tucked in a book, and tracked down the recipient
- 121-year-old postcard delivered to Welsh bank leads to unexpected family reunion
Spencer says her little sister would be "smirking and laughing" if she knew how her little prank played out after all these years.
"She had the best sense of humour," Spencer said. "She never opened her mouth that a wisecrack didn't come out, so I think that she would be wildly entertained by these events."
Interview with Allison Spencer and John Kauterman produced by Leïla Ahouman