(NewsNation) — A woman is on a mission to send her late mother’s ashes across the world by sea, but in a humorous twist of events, she hadn’t gone very far after the first “trip.”
Cara Melia’s mother, Wendy Chadwick, unexpectedly died in February at age 51. Melia hoped to help her mother achieve her goal of traveling the world, so she had an idea: Put her ashes in a bottle and throw them out to sea.
Melia threw the ash-filled bottle into the water on a beach in the English town of Skegness on June 3. Less than 24 hours, the bottle washed ashore — on the same beach.
“I thought, ‘No way has she come back already,’” Melia told the Oldham Times. “I was expecting her to be out in the water and get found by someone in a different country, or somewhere further down the line. Instead, she washed back to Skegness.”
A family visiting the coastal town discovered the bottle halfway buried in the sand. Inside were two handwritten notes with a “treasure map” for the ashes to follow and a message to the finder of the bottle.
The note said, “This is my mum. Throw her back in. She’s travelling the world. Thanks – Cara, Oldham, UK.”
The family posted a video to Facebook of them throwing the bottle back to sea with the caption, “She’s been thrown back in the sea as requested.. happy travels Cara’s Mum.”
Melia said her mom “would be absolutely laughing” at what happened and would “love the fact that she is getting to travel.” She said she hopes her mom, who never had the chance to travel, will end up on a beach in Barbados or Spain.
“Hopefully, she’s gone out with the tide,” Melia told the outlet. “She’s dearly missed, and we hope that she has fun on her travels.”