'This bottle contains the ashes of my son.' Bottle with letter and ashes washes up on Florida shore

By Devoun Cetoute, Miami Herald 15 hrs ago

a hand holding a glass of water: A message in a bottle containing a letter, $4 and the ashes of a father, washed up along the shores of a South Walton, Fla., beach, making its way into the hands of Walton County Sheriff's Office.

1/3 SLIDES © Handout/Walton County Sheriff's Office/TNS

A message in a bottle containing a letter, $4 and the ashes of a father, washed up along the shores of a South Walton, Fla., beach, making its way into the hands of Walton County Sheriff's Office.

MIAMI — Many things wash up on Florida shores — seaweed, trash, shells, sea life and sometimes a brick of cocaine.

But one beachgoer found something more heartfelt and unusual.

A bottle containing a letter, $4 and a man’s ashes.

“This bottle contains the ashes of my son, Brian, who suddenly and unexpectedly passed on March 9, 2019. I’m sending him on one last adventure,” read the first line of the letter.

The bottle was reported to Walton County Sheriff’s Office as found property. Inside was a small bag containing ashes and four $1 bills. According to the letter family had sent 39-year-old Brian on his journey from Destin on Aug. 1, only a few miles away from South Walton beach.

When Sgt. Paula Pendleton responded to the call and opened the glass bottle, she carefully unfolded the note and began to read it.

The letter contained two messages, one from Brian’s mom and another from his daughter.

“Hi, my name is Peyton,” was written in the second note on the wrinkled page. “I am Brian’s daughter. When my father passed, I was 14years old. It has struck our whole family pretty hard and, so far, it has been a very hard road. But, like my granny said, he loved to be free. So, that’s exactly what we are doing.” Pendleton would later agree, it was fortuitous the message found her.

“Who would have known when it washed up on our shores it would have gotten to me?” Pendleton asked in a sheriff’s office release.

Pendleton is no stranger to loss: Her husband died suddenly in April 2018. He was 50. “He died with me at home,” said Pendleton. “It was all very sudden.”

At the bottom of the letter it read, “If you find it, please call or text me and let me know, then kindly set him free once again.”

Scrolled in ink under the messages from Brian’s mother and daughter were emails and phone numbers to contact the family.

When Pendleton had a break in calls for service, she reached out to the family. “I am putting the note back into the bottle with Brian’s ashes and delivering it to a friend who is a charter boat captain,” she wrote in a text. “He has offered to bring Brian way out into the Gulf so he can continue his adventure. But, before that, I want you to know he got to do a ride-a-long with a deputy before drifting out once again.”

Brian was once again set free into the Gulf on Friday.

Brian’s family has created a Facebook group, Brian’s Journey, to chronicle his travels and remember him.

More than 3,000 people from all over the world sharing their own stories of lost family members and offer kind words.

In a similar string of events, Hurricane Dorian has been causing strange debris to wash up on shores across the east coast. One of those debris found in Georgia was a bottle of human ashes with a note tucked inside reading:

“Please don’t open me, my ashes are on a journey,” the note read. “I started at Cumberland Island, so if you see me ashore, please snap a picture, email it & throw me back so I can travel some more.”

It was signed by Nancy Grace Swanson. Just like in Brian’s case, the people who found the ashes will be having someone with a boat take the woman’s ashes out to sea.