Message in a bottle finds its home

Evan Mathias, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Lakeshore News Reporter The note was found by a student named River Vandenberg, while playing near the water in Lakeshore, essentially right where it had been thrown into the lake years before.

Evan Mathias
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Lakeshore News Reporter

Typically, a phone call from your child’s school can leave you fairly concerned as a parent, however, this one phone call from St. John the Baptist Catholic School in Belle River, Ont. left a local mom shocked with good news.

After 26 years, Makenzie Van Eyk (nee Morris) was very surprised to hear that a letter she had written for a class project, had turned up at the school. 

“When I received the call from the school, as a parent you immediately think what has happened to my kid? but they asked if I had a couple minutes and wanted to chat about something,” said Van Eyk. “I think we have something you want to hear. She started reading the letter. She told me ‘you wrote this letter in grade 4 and threw it into the water, do you remember it?’ I instantly remembered writing that letter.”

The note was found by a student named River Vandenberg, while playing near the water in Lakeshore, essentially right where it had been thrown into the lake years before.

“I’m a little sad for River, he didn’t end up finding an actual treasure map in there,” joked Van Eyk. “Maybe I’ll try to organize something where he can actually go on a treasure hunt. He’s missing out, the letter is a treasure to me, but I’m sure he was hoping to find some gold.”

In most situations, messages in a bottle would either turn up right away, within the first few days, or never be seen again. This special bottle however, lasted 26 years before being found by a student at St. John the Baptist.

“Obviously at this point I never thought it would be found. Right after as kids we always thought we would find all of them. When no one’s letters really got found, we figured they had been cleaned up or thrown away. For it to be found this many years later is shocking” said Van Eyk. “

Back in 1998, while in Roland St. Pierre’s grade 4 class, 9-year-old Makenzie and the rest of the class had been tasked with writing a letter about the Great Lakes. While Van Eyk said she didn’t remember exactly what the note was about, she remembers the process of sealing the bottles.

“I didn’t remember that it was a Great Lakes assignment, but I remember the action of sealing the bottle very vividly,” said Van Eyk. “The caps of the bottles were dipped in wax. Our teacher (St. Pierre) had us seal them and dip them all in wax. That process really stuck with me.”

The bottling process wasn’t the only memorable moment for the St. John the Baptist grad.

“I was reminded that this would have been the first time that we had used the computer lab and printers at the school,” explained Van Eyk. “The computer lab was new to the school in 1998. It would have been one of the first times as a class that we typed something and then printed it. To then do something with that letter, is very memorable.”

Reading the letter that she had written so many years ago flooded Van Eyk with memories of that time. Even more-so with her daughter Scarlet being a grade 4 student, also at St. John the Baptist. 

“The interesting thing is, my daughter is currently in grade 4 and as my kids age and go through new grades, it almost puts me back there. I had just spent some time talking about my grade 4 experience,” said Van Eyk. “My grade 4 year really stuck with me a lot. I later became a teacher, and always remembered back to that classroom experience. So yeah, it brought me right back to grade 4 and for my daughter to be in grade 4 as well and to be able to share with her some of the same things that I was learning that they are now… that overall cycle of learning things at those ages. It was really cool.”

The incredible coincidence, paired with impeccable timing makes this story one if immense improbability.

“We weren’t living here (Lakeshore) until just last year. I wanted to move back here and I had told someone as a parent, you always wonder if you’re making the right decisions and the right moves,” said Van Eyk. “To find the letter and have it come back to me after all these years. To be found by River, a child at St. John the Baptist, my school… there’s all these little parts to it…if you look at other bottle stories online, they’re still looking for the authors. Within 24 hours the letter was found and back in my hands, it shows that it was meant to be. It was meant to make its way back to me.” 

Her teacher at the time, Mr. St. Pierre, has been retired for many years, but Van Eyk said the two got quite emotional when they spoke about the letter and the assignment all those years ago.

“It was nice to connect with him, I know he was quite emotional about it,” said Van Eyk. “As an educator I can understand how this is emotional, because you never forget your students and the lessons you teach them. For it all to come back around is beautiful.”

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