Swedish message in bottle found after 22 years by woman who knew the sender

A bottle containing a note thrown into the Baltic Sea by a child in the 1980s was recently found by a woman on the east coast of Sweden who was surprised to realise she knew the sender. “I almost don’t believe it’s true," 31-year-old Josefin Grund and the author of the note said. Grund's surprise comes after Annica Winhagen, who had been out sailing with her husband near Bönhamn on the northeast coast of Sweden, spotted a bottle while strolling the beach.

Curious, Winhagen cracked open the bottle. The ink on the rolled up piece of paper inside was still clear, revealing a short note scribbled in a child's hand. “Hi the one who finds the message in the bottle send a letter I like post cards solums hamn Josefin Grund,” the note read. Winhagen's amazement grew after she realised she knew who the sender was.



“It wasn’t just that is was so old that was exciting, but that I actually knew the person who had sent it,” Winhagen said. “I had worked with her mother when she was just a little girl.” Since Winhagen recognised the quite uncommon last name, as well as the name of the town, Solumshamn, located about 30 kilometres away from her own home, she contacted her former colleague with a picture of the message.

The woman then sent the image to her daughter, now living in Stockholm. “I thought about it for a while, and then I remembered sending the message. I was eight, about to turn nine,” Grund, now 31-years-old, said. The bottle was one of several she remembers throwing in the chilly waters off Sweden's northeastern coast as a young girl, leading her to wonder if she may yet receive more answers.