Family find message in a bottle with man's ashes two years after widow threw it into sea

The Alvarez family from Carballo, Spain, found Jerry Whitt's ashes while enjoying a day out at the beach
The Alvarez family filmed the moment they spread Mr Whitt's ashes
WKYT
David Child3 September 2020

A family enjoying a day at the beach were staggered to discover a man's ashes in a bottle floating in the sea.

The Alvarez family from Carballo, Spain, found the bottle last month while on Razo Beach in northwestern Spain.

Inside was a note from a woman revealing the contents in the jar were her late husband’s ashes.

Two years earlier, Mary Whitt had thrown the bottle into the Atlantic Ocean after suddenly losing her spouse of 30 years, Jerry Whitt.

Ms Whitt, from the US state of Kentucky, made the gesture as part of an effort to tick off her late husband's bucket list, at the top of which was travel.

“We never got to travel because we worked,” Mary told Kentucky's WKYT News.

Travel was at the top of Mr Whitt's bucket list
WKYT

“I decided to put Jerry’s ashes in a bottle, and his picture and a note, I thought that this would be a good way that he could travel."

After discovering the bottle on August 13, the Alvarez family made contact with Ms Whitt, who asked them to scatter the ashes into the Atlantic Ocean.

The family happily obliged and filmed the moment they gave Mr Whitt an emotional send off so his widow could witness the moment.

"It touched all of our hearts. It's just so heartwarming and touching that they are this good to us,” Ms Whitt told Kentucky newspaper the Commonwealth Journal.

The two families have since remained in touch and the Whitts have been invited to Spain to stay with the Alvarez family.

“I think he would be so excited so think that we have friends in Spain now, you know, we video chat with them, we talk often and he would have absolutely loved that,” Mr Whitt's daughter, Emilee Whitt, told WKYT news.