(WXYZ) — Imagine writing a letter putting it in a bottle and tossing it in the water. Then waiting for someone to get back to you with a response.
For Tia Allera, that response came more than four decades later near the same area where she threw a bottle in the water while staying with her grandpa in Traverse City.
It was a shock and a surprise for Allera. In fact, she almost forgot about the day when she wrote a message, put it in a bottle and threw it into the water hoping to one day hear from someone. Well, now she has and she couldn't be happier.
"Hello, to whom ever finds this bottle," Allera's letter began. "I threw it in front of the lighthouse on the old Michigan peninsula."
It was Aug. 29, 1974. Then, 11-year-old Allera was staying at her Grandpa's place in Traverse City. That day, she took a leap of fatih, wrote a note, put it in a bottle and tossed it on the water.
"Around the world, a pirate or a mermaid... or the Lake Michigan monster," Allera said of who may have found her message. "I was just hoping. I didn’t know what to expect."
Time went by and still there was no response, but Allera never gave up hope. She knew some day, someone would try to reach out and someone did – four years ago through Facebook messenger. However, Allera didn’t open the message.
"(It) was someone I didn’t recognize their name, so I didn’t open it," Allera said. "Finally, probably about two weeks ago, I went in and got a new phone. There is this message still from this person in Traverse City."
It was a picture of the note Allera wrote more than 40 years ago. The person who found it was Eric Amon.
"I didn’t know," Amon said. "It was rolled up and on the back, on the paper it said, "read this" and that’s the first thing I found. I was like, "what the heck.'"
For Amon, it was incredible to find and read the letter from Allera.
"Somebody throws a bottle out, not knowing where it’s going to go and hopefully someday, it (returns) to them," Amon said. "It’s kind of a fairytale type thing."
Allera says it was worth the wait.
She plans to visit Amon soon in Traverse City. It's a meeting Allera says she's been looking forward to for more than 45 years.
