Brittanie Penrose thought nothing of it when she put an emotional message in a bottle and threw it into the ocean three years ago. Penrose was recovering from cancer when a friend, Aaron Lanari, had the idea to put two handwritten notes in a wine bottle and toss it into the water at Oceanside Pier, California in 2010, the Daily Mail reports. They were both 24 at the time.
"I just thought it would be a really great date idea," he said to Guamdn.com. "I gave her some paper and I said 'Write whatever you want.'"
Penrose wrote about her life, her dog and battling cancer and stuck her note in the bottle. She also included her email address so whoever found it could contact her. In Lanari's note he told the finder to "reach out and grab out of life everything they have ever wanted" and sealed the bottle.
"I just described me and what I'm doing, and at the same time I was a phlebotomist and was fighting cancer," she said. "And we headed to the ocean and threw it off the pier."
The two said they forgot about the notes until the bottle was discovered 6,200 miles away on a beach in Guam by a 14-year-old boy. According to the Desert News, Linda Tatreau, a science teacher at George Washington High School in Guam always has her students clean the beaches and finding bottles with messages in them isn't uncommon.
When Javier Sanchez found the bottle he took it back to his teacher where the school held a ceremony to open it. After Sanchez smashed the bottle under a blanket, Tatreau read the letter aloud.
"Hello, my name is Brittanie Somebody," she began.
Penrose, who is now 27, said she was visiting family in California when she and Lanari tossed the bottle. She was recovering from surgery and chemotherapy from a brain tumor and was unsure of her life at the time.
By the time Sanchez found the bottle the part in her message about battling with cancer had been faded by the sun and was too worn out to read. Penrose told Desert News that she doesn't believe that was a coincidence because her cancer is now in remission.
"I was just in shock," she said when the bottle was discovered. "I was like, 'Is this real? This can't be happening.'"
