Diane Charles in 2001 (left) and Erika Boyera in 1997 (right) – credit, family photos
Not exactly news, but a beautiful story comes now from the sandy shores of Tasmania, where 25 years ago, the waves brought a life-long friend to resident Diane Charles.
Rising early, she tells ABC News AU, was her habit back then—to enjoy the peace of the sea and salute other early risers. One such morning in January, Charles discovered something bobbing up and down in the surf.
It was that most famous of curiosities: a bottle, sealed tightly with a message inside.
We’re talking 25 years ago, so when Charles opened it up to find the note written in Spanish, she couldn’t just type it in to Google Translate; and it wasn’t as if there were a big immigrant community in Tasmania either.
The captivating discovery became all the more captivating—because it was a mystery. With the help of her brother who had a Spanish dictionary, she tried to piece together the gist of the letter by picking out individual words, but it was poetic, and they eventually sought a scholar.
“Life has taught me all is possible, receive love and success second to this,” was the literal translation. In the top left corner, however, there was something far more interesting, a name and a fax number.
In 1997, some years before Charles’ fateful discovery on the beach, Erika Boyero from Colombia was bartending aboard a cruise ship sailing around Scandinavia. Oppressed by boredom, she filled several empty alcohol bottles with letters and threw them overboard.
Four years later, one made it to Tasmania, and when Charles sent a letter via fax, Boyero was back at home in Colombia.
“Hey, you received a fax from Australia,” said her father. “I said, ‘What? I don’t know anyone in Australia.’”
Then she remembered the bottles.
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“You don’t really think that can happen,” she told ABC News AU. “There are so many millions of people in the world … and when destiny, in this way, shows a person you have to meet in this life, for this reason … it is beautiful.”
That fax led to a 25-year friendship, with the women calling and writing each other routinely to catch up or celebrate milestones like the birth of children or moving house. It ultimately culminated in a visit for the first time this March, when Boyero was on a trip to Kuala Lumpur, and for the first time in her life, the distance to Tasmania seemed small.
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Waiting at the airport, Charles felt a bizarre form of anticipation unlike anything she had experienced, but when Boyero appeared through the exit doors, it was like seeing a “long lost friend.”
The first item on the itinerary was a walk on Tatlows beach, where Charles discovered Boyero’s letter, and then a visit to the local Stanley Discovery Museum, where her message had become part of an exhibition.
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