One day, Rihanna and her daddy were going for a walk on the beach in Singapore. Rihanna loved collecting seashells, so every Sunday morning, her daddy would take her to the beach.
As they walked along the shore, Rihanna spotted something unusual—a glass bottle stuck in the sand. It looked like an old wine bottle that the sea had washed ashore. She pulled it out and noticed it was sealed with a cork. Inside the bottle was a rolled-up piece of paper.
Curious, Rihanna carefully removed the cork and took out the message. The paper was dry because the bottle had been sealed. She unrolled it and read:
'My dearest, dearest darling wife Rosanna and my darling daughters Susan and Leanne, I am writing this message to you from a small island in France. The war has become very, very fierce and intense. Every day, aeroplanes come and bomb the island. I don't know whether I will ever be able to see you again. But I just want all of you to know that I love you a lot. I have no way of sending you a message. I can't communicate with you. So I am putting this down on a piece of paper and putting it in the sea. Love, Pierre. 2nd of April 1942'
Rihanna was amazed. 'Wow, Daddy, look at this letter!' she exclaimed.
Her daddy examined the paper. It looked very old. 'This letter was written in 1942,' he said. 'That's about 80 to 90 years ago. It's been floating in the sea all this time, and now it's finally landed here in Singapore.'
'What happened in 1942?' Rihanna asked.
'In 1942, there was a very big war,' her daddy explained. 'All the countries were fighting with each other. This was probably written by a soldier in the army who was posted in France. In those days, there were no phones or computers, so there was no way to speak to your family. He must have put this message in a bottle and thrown it into the sea, hoping that someday it would reach his family.'
Rihanna's eyes lit up. 'Daddy, I want to find this person's family!'
'How can we do that?' her daddy asked.
'I'll try to find out,' Rihanna said determinedly.
When they got home, Rihanna started doing research on the internet. She looked up what happened in France in 1942, what happened during the war, and what happened on that particular island. She went to the library and found old books, newspapers, and records.
Then she had an idea. 'I think we can try to find out where this wine bottle came from,' she said. 'This person must have been near the place where this wine was made.'
They discovered that the wine bottle was made by a small vineyard in France. So during the next holidays, Rihanna and her daddy flew to France to investigate.
They went to the vineyard, and the people there confirmed, 'Yes, this is our bottle! You found this after 70 to 80 years? Let's see if we can help.'
The vineyard had records showing that this particular bottle was sold in a specific shop on a small island. Rihanna and her daddy went to that shop and tried to figure out who was living there during 1942. They found out that an American army unit had been posted there during the war.
'So this person was from America!' Rihanna realized.
They contacted the American embassy and told them the whole story. The embassy staff were fascinated. 'We'll check our records and tell you who this person was,' they promised.
After searching through old military records, they found someone named Pierre who had been posted in France in 1942 during the war. But they said, 'It's very difficult to find his family. We don't have records of them. But we know the names of his daughters—Susan and Leanne.'
Rihanna had another idea. 'I'll write up this whole story and share it,' she said.
She posted the story on Facebook with pictures of the letter: 'I found this letter in a bottle. This is the story of Pierre, an American soldier who was posted in France during the war. He sent this message in a bottle, and it has been floating for so many years. It finally landed in Singapore. If anyone can find Susan or Leanne, the daughters of Pierre, please contact me.'
The post went viral. Everybody liked it and kept sharing it. Many, many months passed by with no response.
Then finally, one day, a woman named Leanne saw the post on Facebook. She was 85 years old—Pierre's daughter! She contacted Rihanna immediately.
'I have the letter and the bottle,' Rihanna told her.
'I am 85 years old,' Leanne said. 'I cannot take such a long flight from America to Singapore. But I really, really want to see this letter. My daddy wrote it for me so many years ago when he couldn't see me. I would love to have it.'
The next holiday, Rihanna and her daddy flew to America. They found Leanne's address and gave her the letter and the bottle.
Leanne was overwhelmed with emotion. 'Eighty-five years ago, my daddy wrote this letter,' she said, tears in her eyes. 'In those days, there was no computer, no phone. He just put it in a bottle, hoping that someday it would reach me. And after 85 years, it finally did—all because of you, Rihanna. You did all this research and hard work.'
Leanne gave Rihanna a big hug. 'Thank you so much,' she said. 'My daddy's wish came true. I am so, so, so happy to receive this letter.'
And that's how a message in a bottle, floating in the ocean for 85 years, finally found its way home.
