Edenvale girl’s message in a bottle found 14 years later

On January 1, 2001, a 13-year-old girl wrote a message and placed it in a bottle.

The touching message was accompanied with a few of her favourite things, including a pendant, a ring, her favourite shampoo, the chocolate wrapper from the last chocolate she ate and a bracelet she received when she attended her first foam party.

The writer of the letter was Angela-Leigh Harris, born in 1987, and at the time she lived in Edenvale.

“The bottle you have found contains a small ring which my little sister wore; she is five years old,” Angela wrote in the letter.

“I want you to look after these things for me and please write to me, I don’t care if you are black or white, male or female, thin or fat, rich or poor; I would like to have another friend in my life,” she wrote.

Her message was sealed in a bottle and buried in the sand.

On March 14, Mossel Bay resident Michael de Nobrega found the bottle buried in the sand on Danabay Beach.

Michael found the bottle with a metal detector and posted his find on Facebook.

When contacted by the NEWS, Michael said he would love to find Angela and return her precious items.

With a little help from Marietta Lombard, the Editor of the Bedfordview and Edenvale News, Angela-Leigh Harris was found on March 17.

Speaking about the day she wrote the letter, Angela said she had read stories about people finding messages in bottles.

At the time she was on holiday in Mossel Bay where she stayed with her mother.

“That day I had a fight with my mom and was at the beach when I had the idea,” said Angela.

“I just wanted a random friend. Looking back, it may not have been the best idea, my address was in the letter,” she said.

Angela currently lives in Alberton where she, as a single mom of a six-year-old boy, works.

“I would move back to Edenvale in a heartbeat. I am a Vale person through and through,” she said.

Michael, who has been an avid metal detector user for the last two years, said the whole thing was exciting.

He plans to send Angela’s letter and items which she placed in the bottle, 14 years ago, back to her.

“This is definitely an interesting find. It may not have been a valuable find, but it is an interesting find,” said Michael.

Michael was two-years-old when his family moved to Mossel Bay from Cape Town.