A remarkable tale of connection spanning across continents has emerged from the depths of the ocean, a gift from a daughter to her late father. It’s a story full of grief and tinged with hints of healing, and tells of a bond that lives on and pays tribute to the man she always looked up to.
The gift, a message in a bottle, had made its way from the shores of Massachusetts to France, carrying with it a heartfelt letter that Jodi Thomas, 55, had found herself writing. In it, all the grief and all the love she had for the man she had called ‘Dad’. It was something she had tossed into the ocean, never expecting it would return. But then she got a phone call. A lot of phone calls.
Thomas found herself inundated with calls from an unknown number in France earlier this year, igniting a cascade of curiosity and disbelief. “New year, new scams,” she said she had thought, initially dismissing the calls. “I had a spree of calls… At first I dismissed them, but then received a text from one of the numbers stating, ‘The letter you wrote has been retrieved in France. Would you be interested in speaking with us?’”
French history teacher Jean Rouchard found Jodi Thomas’s message to her dad in a bottle that washed up out of the ocean. Photo by CBS Boston
The grieving daughter had written the message and then tucked it inside a bottle, casting into the ocean in August 2022, during a fishing trip off Provincetown, Massachusetts, as a tribute to her father, a pilot boat captain. Thomas lost her father Tommy in 2021. after he had fought a long battle with heart issues. He had been battling heart issues for a few years.
Tommy was a pilot boat captain in New Bedford and helped to usher bigger boats through a canal. He asked Jodi to take his boat out one last time after he died. He wanted her to take it to a special spot where the two of them used to interact from the sea.
Across the Atlantic, on the shores of Montalivet, France, history teacher Jean Rouchard stumbled upon an unexpected treasure during a beach stroll. After much contemplation, Rouchard reached out to Thomas through an online memorial for her father.
Recalling the moment she saw the picture of her bottle on her phone, Thomas expressed shock and overwhelming emotion. “I had to pull over, I was shaking with unbelievable nerves of disbelief,” she said. For Thomas, this encounter was not only a reunion with the message she had put all her love in for her father, but also a testament to the bond the two had shared.
Jodi Thomas tosses a bottle containing a note to her late father off the coast of Provincetown, Mass. Photo courtesy of Jodi Thomas
Losing him in 2021 was a profound loss, and her act of sending messages in bottles became a way to honor his memory. Reflecting on her father’s legacy, Thomas reminisced about their shared moments and his unwavering kindness.
“He was the essence of a beautiful man,” she said. “My first memory is that of wonder. He stood tall and strong with a grand presence. He was handsome. His smile made you smile too.”
He was a hard worker and always wanted the best.”
The discovery of the bottle by Rouchard not only brought solace to Thomas but also opened a door to a new friendship bridging the miles between them. Plans for a future meeting in France or Massachusetts are already in motion, underscoring the power of human connection and the unexpected ways in which it manifests.
“I believe in signs. I believe in spirituality. It went there for a reason,” Thomas said, attributing the journey of her message to a higher purpose. “Hey kid, I am watching you for sure,” she added, echoing her father’s presence in her life, even across oceans and beyond time.
As this remarkable tale unfolds, it serves as a poignant reminder of the enduring bonds of love and the extraordinary paths that messages, both literal and metaphorical, can traverse to find their way home.
