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Family's bizarre find inside message in a bottle

Nadine Carroll
·3-min read

A family enjoying a day at the beach got more than they bargained for when they found a message in a bottle floating in the water.

The Alvarez family from Carballo, Spain, found the bottle with a mysterious substance inside - and a note from a woman revealing the contents in the jar were her late husband’s ashes.

Two years earlier and 64,000 kms away in US state of Kentucky, Mary Whitt lost her husband of 30 years, Jerry Whitt.

His sudden death shook the close family who said Jerry had a long bucket list and on the top of that list was to travel.

The Alvarez family from Spain holding the bottle of Jerry Whitt’s ashes
The Alvarez family (pictured) were at a beach in Spain when they found a bottle containing Jerry Whitt’s ashes and a note from his wife. Source: wkyt

“We never got to travel because we worked,” Mary told WKYT News.

“Whenever it came to anything, his work, his children, his wife, he was always very passionate,” Jerry’s daughter Emilee Whitt added.

Two months after Jerry’s passing, Mary decided to start ticking off his bucket list and took her first plane ride to Florida where she had a plan to help Jerry travel too.

“I decided to put Jerry’s ashes in a bottle, and his picture and a note, I thought that this would be a good way that he could travel,” Mary said.

Jerry Whitt and the bottle containing his ashes.
When Jerry Whitt (Right) passed away suddenly, his wife decided to put some of his ashes, a photo and note into a bottle and threw it into the Atlantic ocean. Source: wkyt

She threw the bottle into the Atlantic ocean and and hoped it would travel somewhere Jerry would have loved.

It was two years later on August 13, 2020, that the Alvarez family discovered the bottle floating in Razo Beach on the northwest coast of Spain.

The families connected over email and Mary asked if the Alvarez family would scatter Jerry’s ashes into the Atlantic.

Mary Whitt (Left) and her daughter Emilee Whitt (Right)
Mary Whitt (Left) and her daughter Emilee Whitt (Right) said Jerry would have loved that his ashes connected the two families. Source: wkyt

They happily obliged and filmed the moment they gave him an emotional send off so Mary could feel like she was there.

"It touched all of our hearts. It's just so heartwarming and touching that they are this good to us,” Mary told the Commonwealth Journal.

The two families still keep in touch and the Whitts have been invited to Spain to stay with the Alvarez family.

“I think he would be so excited so think that we have friends in Spain now, you know, we video chat with them, we talk often and he would have absolutely loved that,” Emilee said.

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