Moving letter from daughter to late father in US washes up in Gironde

A moving letter written from a daughter to her late father has washed up on a beach in southwest France, where it was found by a passing walker.

Jean Rouchaud, a lycée teacher, was walking on the Vendays-Montalivet beach in Gironde (Nouvelle-Aquitaine) near his holiday home when he saw a bottle washed up on the sand.

“This morning, I happened to see a bottle. There was something inside, with writing. I brought it home and opened it,” Mr Rouchaud told France 3. “There was a letter written in US English. It was a daughter writing to her late father.”

The bottle had been strongly sealed with the help of paraffin, which kept the letter intact on its 6,000 km journey across the ocean. The letter was dated March 19, 2022, and was sent from a place called Provincetown in Massachusetts, in the eastern US.

“The father died in 2021, aged 77,” said Mr Rouchaud. “He was apparently the skipper of a tugboat. The sea was obviously fundamental to him, and his daughter threw two bottles into the sea. One at the time of his death and the second on the first anniversary of his death.”

Image: Facebook / Montalivet

The letter mentions the daughter’s memories and love for her father, including: “I miss all your stories of time gone-by…Yesterday was carnival; monsters, myths, and legends. You are my legend! Everyone that knows you loved you, admired you [and] respected you for you!

“I loved just watching you here in town as people approached you with such happy vibes and genuine likes for you. You were generous and truly kind - one of a kind - I can say that with confidence and pride. I was beyond proud to be yours - the result of a love affair that had a history and passion long ago.

“We all know time changes everything, nothing stays the same, but my love and admiration for you ‘meu pai’ will be there always…the first bright star in every night, here now and forever in our town.”

‘Meu pai’ means ‘my father’ in Portuguese.

Modern connection

Mr Rouchard debated whether to try and contact the original writer.

He said: “I got the impression that for the sender, her father was in heaven, in the ocean. And that this letter was a way of communicating with him. So I wondered if she was really expecting a reply. How was she going to take the fact that we'd found her?”

However, after finding the daughter - and the father’s memorial page - on social network Facebook, he messaged her, and received a reply a few hours later.

Jodi Lin Thomas wrote back, and confirmed that the letter was hers.

“She confirmed everything I had deduced about her father's life,” said Mr Rouchaud. “She explained that when she was overwhelmed by grief, she would write to him.”

Mr Rouchaud also posted about his find on a Montalivet Facebook page, and found that the story struck an emotional chord.

“I could see that people were very moved,” he said. “I told [Ms Thomas] that there was a lot of love on the other side of the Atlantic [and] that French people who didn't even know her father are thinking of him and are moved by this letter. I think that pleased her and moved her in return.”

Two-year journey

This is not the first message in a bottle from the US to be washed up on French shores in recent months. In November 2023, a message from a school in North Carolina was found by two brothers, Thiago and Ethan Rouzeau.

Read more: Message in a bottle travels from US to France and sparks friendship

They were walking with their father on the beach in Noirmoutier (Vendée) after a stormy night, when they caught sight of something in the sand. It turned out to be a bottle containing a letter from a girl called Colbie, a former student at Summit school in North Carolina.

It had taken two years to reach France.

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