How a message in a bottle mended our broken hearts

A life-long friendship has blossomed after a bottle travelled 1500km up the coast

It was the final tearful goodbye to their “little angel” Alana after her eight-month battle with Ewing sarcoma came to an end – a bottle filled with heartbreaking messages to the 14-year-old from her family and friends and tossed into the ocean off Sydney’s northern beaches.

But the de Kort family never dreamt that over a year later the bottle would wash up 1500km away and lead to the start of an incredible friendship that has helped heal their broken hearts.

“I remember it was the most beautiful sunny morning when the boys threw the bottle into the water,” Alana’s mother Jacqui told The Project, describing her daughter as a “special kid” with a “wicked sense of humour”.

About 13 months later, Queenslanders Bob and Melanie Cooper were walking on the beach near their home in Agnes Water and, in what they now believe was fate, happened upon the bottle in the sand.

“We started getting pretty choked up and thought, ‘Wow, this is something important and meaningful’, ” Melanie says of the discovery. She quickly reached out to Jacqui and the two women forged an immediate friendship. “She’s been emotional when I’ve been emotional, and empathetic to what we’re going through,” says

Jacqui. “She’s

‘The sadness got pushed back and a bit of happiness comes back in’

just a lovely friend from afar.”

Bob and Melanie recently met up with the de Korts, and Alana’s father, Paul, says meeting them and getting the bottle back has helped give them some closure. “The sadness got pushed back a bit, and a bit of happiness and beauty comes back in,” he says.

The family believe the Coopers finding the bottle is a special message from Alana, knowing it would help them to move on.

“It was meant to be,” Melanie says. “Us choosing that day to go for a walk at that beach, it could have been anyone, but it was us.”

“Hopefully we will be in contact for a very long time,” adds Paul.