Walking on the beach on Central Whidbey Island provided an unexpected treasure for Mona Lisa Carney.
She and her boyfriend found a classic “message in a bottle” that appears to have floated through most of the Puget Sound before making its way to Whidbey Island.
Carney said she and her boyfriend found the bottle May 12 while walking on a beach near Fort Ebey State Park. It also contained paperwork showing a stop it made on its way to Whidbey.
The hand-written message, which included a picture of a young boy, had comments from “Carl,” recounting his blessings even though his wife is diabetic and nearly blind. He talked about seeing miracles and eagerly awaiting for the future while sadly citing the deaths of his family members.
“Today was great and I can hardly wait for tomorrow,” Carl said in the letter. “As the ripe old age of 71, I figure maybe 90 will be a good day to greet the Lord and leave this world behind.”
In addition to Carl’s note, a Maury Island resident found the bottle added a second message with her contact information asking anyone who found the bottle to contact her.
“It was a very heartfelt message,” Patty Van Den Broek, a Maury Island resident, said of Carl’s note. She found the bottle in April on Manzanita Beach, located on Maury Island, at the shore’s high tide mark.
“I don’t know who he is,” Van Den Broek said of the mysterious “Carl” who originated the bottled message.
She held onto the bottle for about a week or so. She showed it to her beachcombers group. She waited for a northern breeze, coupled with an outgoing tide, before hurling the glass Aqua Panna bottle, complete with the messages, back into the Puget Sound so it could continue on its journey.
After being tossed again into Puget Sound, the bottle floated its way past Seattle and Everett and into Admiralty Inlet before Carney and her boyfriend stumbled upon it on the west side of Whidbey Island.
She placed a little note saying where and when the bottle was discovered. She plans to throw it back into the water so it can continue on its journey.
