Monique Maertens, lives in Brugge, Belgium, and has  an Aunt Rose living in Garburn Place who advised her to send a fascinating story to Newton News . . .
Monique lives about 14 miles from the beach and now and then takes her two Jack Russels there for a walk. Last Friday, the weather was good, so she decided to go to the seaside.
Monique writes:
“I was playing with a ball with the dogs and as a volunteer litter cleaner saw glass which I wanted to remove, but then realised it was a plastic bottle, containing a note.
I recalled a movie about “a message in a bottle” and had one right in front of my feet and was very curious. With the wind and the dogs I could not open the bottle immediately so put it in my bag and returned home forgetting about the bottle.
To avoid the rush hour, I took a back road home passing a  horse riding school called  “The Paddock” Once home I was very anxious to read what the two notes in the bottle said. One was the address of the girl who wrote the messages and the other was a letter to the girl’s Granddad.
The girl’s name was “Ellie” and she lives in “The Paddock” and I thought of the coincidence of the riding school I had passed on the way home.
The second coincidence was the family address in Newton Aycliffe, England where my family live and where I visited two years ago. Ellie’s mother’s maiden name is Allan and my Aunt Gladys is also Allan and and she too lived in Newton Aycliffe.
The emotional letter was to Grandad, who had died 3 years ago and who Ellie was missing so much. I called the family and I spoke to Ellie and her mum who thought it so strange that the bottle fell into my hands.
The bottle was thrown in the sea last August in Southend-on-Sea, where the girl’s Grandmother lives. It had been bobbing over waves of the North Sea for 5 months to land just in front of my feet. It was an odd coincidence as the the beach is  long and so very wide! I have Ellie’s email and we intend to keep in touch.
I have been a widow for years and when my husband was alive, we always had some connection with number 22 and  strangely enough I found the bottle on the 22nd November.
I send this story to Newton News because I wanted to share these coincidences with your readers”.
Monique
bottle