Brian Dahl had no idea what the words he wrote on a message in a bottle would mean to his family. He wrote the message in 1989 when he was 11 years old and threw the bottle into the sea near Oxford, Mississippi.
His family now believes that this message was heaven-sent.
In April, Billy Mitchell of Big River Shipbuilders saw a green bottle bobbing up and down in the water. Mitchell is a salvage diver and said that he always looks for unique stuff. When he saw the bottle, he told his friend that was a message in it.
After grabbing the bottle from the ocean, he carefully got the message out with shish kebab skewers.
Much of the letter was destroyed, but he could make out what he thought was Tahl, the year 1989, and the location of Oxford, Mississippi in a child’s handwriting.
Immediately, Mitchell wanted to play detective and find the writer of the message. So his friends at Big River all worked together.
They posted a photo of the note on Facebook and it was shared 127 times. A few days later, Dr. Eric Dahl (Brian’s brother) received a phone call from someone who told him about the post. Melanie Parker Dahl then left a comment on the post.
“It’s astounding it happened,” Eric said. “We get a message 33 years after Brian put it in the river. It’s like something in a fictitious novel or something you’d see on TV,” Eric continued. “To see Brian’s handwriting from when he was 11 or 12 years old — it was miraculous.”
Brain grew up to be an athlete that beat cancer. But he died in an accident at the age of 29.
“It was a gift from on high. We’re a praying family and this is a part of God’s providence,” Eric said.
The message in the bottle was a part of a sixth-grade project. His teacher, Martha Burnett, now 82, told USA Today the class was on a field trip. They dropped the bottles in the water and heard nothing…until now.
