The real life "Message in a Bottle"

This is a friend of mine that I have know since I was five years old. This is such an amazing and sweet story! Just thought I would share it with everyone!

Message in a bottle comes full circle

A simply written note tossed into the ocean 20 years ago by Angie Fulcher Goodwin, left, then 10 years old, and found five years later by Thomas McGrath, right, of Tipperary, Ireland, has fostered a life-long pen pal friendship. The two met for the first time Tuesday in Atlantic. (Helen Outland photo)

NEWS-TIMES
Published: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 3:08 PM EDT
HELEN OUTLAND

ATLANTIC — A reunion 20 years in the making took place in Atlantic Tuesday afternoon when Thomas McGrath from Tipperary, Ireland, and Angie Fulcher Goodwin of Atlantic met face to face after years of writing letters.

Their friendship had come full circle. As a 10-year old, Mrs. Goodwin, who is now 30, sent a message in a bottle, that Mr. McGrath retrieved five years later in Ireland. The two corresponded, but it wasn’t until this week that they met, a surprise visit Mr. McGrath planned in order to meet his American pen pal.

Mr. McGrath arrived in Carteret County Monday night, and traveled Down East the next day.

The story of their friendship began on April 4, 1988, Mrs. Goodwin along with her sister Stephanie and best friend Megan Kimry decided to put a message in a bottle and launch it into the ocean from the shores of Core Banks.

Mrs. Goodwin’s parents, Mike and Ann Fulcher, have a camp on the banks and were on one a family outings when the girls came up with the idea of a message in a bottle.

“We took a glass bottle and put the letter in it,” Mr. Fulcher said. “We waited for the outgoing tide and the girls threw it overboard.”

According to Mr. Fulcher, the next morning they found the bottle washed up on the shore and once again it was thrown into the Atlantic Ocean. They watched it disappear over the horizon.

On a beautiful June morning five years and 5,000 miles later, the bottle washed up. This time it was on Dingle Beach on the western most tip of Ireland.

“I had gone to the beach early for a walk,” Mr. McGrath, now 53 years old, said with his soft Irish brogue. “It was about 8:30 a.m., and as I walked the beach I spotted this bottle about 200 yards ahead.”

Mr. McGrath said the beach, near his Tipperary home, is pristine and clean, so it was unusual to find any debris along the shore. He retrieved the bottle and to his delight saw a note inside.

“The top was rusted shut to the glass bottle and being impatient, I broke the bottle to retrieve the note,” he said. “You can imagine my surprise when I read the note and saw the date it was put to sea.”

In the practiced print of a child, Mrs. Goodwin introduced herself, her sister and her friend.

“Our names are Angie, Megan and Stephanie,” the note read. She wrote the date, where they were from and “would you please right back.” She included her phone number and her address.

The note and the miracle of it ever reaching the Irish shore touched Mr. McGrath, who started corresponding.

“I am so glad I was the one who found it.” he said. “The most beautiful friendship evolved from it, and I am so glad I am here today to meet Angie face to face and to give her a big surprise. My heart is full. I am nervous, and I am excited.”

Mr. McGrath said he knew Mrs. Goodwin was married and now had two children.

“It would be all but impossible for her to reach Ireland with two small babies,” he said. “I wanted us to meet while we could. So, I have come here.”

The surprise was a success. Mrs. Godwin works as a nurse at Carteret Clinic for Adolescents & Children in Morehead City.

Having no idea the surprise awaiting her, she rushed to return to her parent’s home in Atlantic to pick up her children, where they stay while she works. A traffic jam in Beaufort had her running late and frustrated. As she exited her car, her parents met her in the yard telling her there was someone there to meet her. They directed her to their neighbor’s yard across the street on Core Sound where Mr. McGrath stood waiting. As she approached Mr. McGrath, she recognized him and her body straightened and her mouth opened.

“I know you!” she squealed as she rushed to her long-time pen pal. “I know you from your pictures!”

As the pair hugged and began talking, Mr. McGrath presented Angie with a copy of the letter she had sent so many years before. He also showed her the framed original, but said it was his to keep.

“I never expected this,” she said softly as she held the original. “Even when we threw the bottle into the ocean I thought someone in Ocracoke or Hatteras might pick it up, but I never expected it to make Ireland. Today is so amazing. It is so special that the bottle, and our letters after that, have meant so much to Thomas that he would come here today.”

According to Mr. McGrath, a retired purchasing contractor, scientist in Ireland had shown him the ocean currents in which the bottle had traveled to reach Dingle Beach. In the five-year trip it had avoided any number of events that could have destroyed it.

“It was meant for me to find the bottle,” he said.

The note in the bottle is a Fulcher family tradition. Over the years more bottles were put to sea, but none crossed the ocean. It is a tradition that will be carried on. Mrs. Goodwin’s children, daughter Riley, 8, and son Bodie, 3, have already sent their own bottles to sea.

“You see what a wonderful thing can happen,” she told the children as she showed them the note and introduced them to the man who found it.

As he stood eating his very first, freshly picked fig, Mr. McGrath reflected on the ocean and the beauty of Carteret County.

“This is a magnificent place,” he said as he looked out over the sound. “It would take very little for me to come live here. Everywhere I have been, I have been treated with exceptional kindness and it has touched my heart.”

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