Family Honors Man’s Memory With Modern Message In a Bottle
Melvin’s message in a bottle before it was thrown back into the Pacific Ocean.
Article By Rheana Murray, Good Morning America
A California family honored a loved one’s memory by scattering his ashes in the sea and throwing a message in a bottle into the Pacific Ocean with the hope that others will find it and keep the bottle bobbing for years to come.
Inside the bottle wrapped in twine is a photo of Melvin Stanley Clary, 77, who died in April, and a message for anyone who finds it to post a photo on the family’s Facebook page before tossing it back in the ocean so Clary can continue his journey.
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“It was something I thought of doing just as a way to remember my dad,” Clary’s daughter Nancy Souza, 46, told ABC News. “I just thought it would be cool if someone actually did find it. I was having a hard time losing my dad.”
Inside the bottle is a note from “Mel”: “Today my family is laying me to rest in a place that I love … the ocean. So, this starts my journey.”
So far, one person has found the bottle and posted a message on the “Melvin’s Journey” Facebook page, but Souza, from Livermore, California, and her family are eager to see where the bottle will travel.
Last month, they released the bottle off Moss Beach.
“We chartered a boat and spread his ashes out to sea, and threw the bottle out there, past the buoys in the ocean,” she said.
Days later, someone found it washed ashore and contacted the family.
“It was found nearby probably about 30 or so miles down the coast,” Souza said. “We had written about him and how he loved the ocean and if somebody were to find the message, to go to the Facebook page. And that’s exactly what the kid did.”
Souza believes her dad, who loved deep sea fishing and abalone hunting, would appreciate the gesture.
“I think he would think it’s pretty cool that he’s still touching people’s lives,” she said.
