Gulf Oil Spill : Workers Find Mom's Message To Dead Son In A Bottle

London  (August 11) - When Sarah Adams dropped a glass bottle containing a heartfelt  tribute to her dead son into the sea in January  of this year, she had no idea whether it would be swallowed by the ocean or washed up on some faraway shore. Now, seven moths later, the British mother's touching letter to the son she lost in Afghanistan has been found by workers cleaning up the Gulf  of Mexico oil spill - uniting two countries in rememberrance of this young soldier's life.
Adams' 21-year-old son, Pvt. James Prosser, waas killed last September when  the armored vehicle he was driving was hit by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. Unable to face a traditional Christmas at home  without him, Adams and her family traveled to Barbados. That Caribbean island held a special place in her heart, Adams said - it reminded me of James generosity and kindness.
"In 2004, he won me a holiday through a local radio  competition," the 44-year -old medical worker from the small Welsh town of Cwmbran explained. "So we all decided it was appropriate for us to go back to the island."
The idea of placing a message in a bottle came to Adams as she sat on a Barbadian beach, looking out to sea. "It was just so beautiful, and I was thinking about how James would always  get involved in the water sports when we used to go on holiday," she said. "I was looking out there  and wishing he could be included. And the only way I could do that was to write to him.
And so Adams, her daughter Emma Prosser, 25, son Josh Newman, 16, and Emma's boyfriend Tom Betts each wrote a letter to James that they rolled up and pushed inside a sambuca bottle -  James "favorite drink" how much we loved him and how much we missed him," Adams said. "I was just chatting with James."
Betts, meanwhile , broke the news that he had proposed to James  sister a few days earlier on New Year's Eve and explained how they planned to marry next year (2011).
On January 5, the family hired a boat to take them as far off the Barbadian coast  as it could go. Thay drank a toast to James and then placed the tightly sealed bottle into the clear blue water. At the time, Adams suspected the bottle woul sink to the bottom of the Alantic, never to be seen again.
"The boat's driver seemed to think it would move toward Africa," she said. "But we really didn't think about where it would end up or whether anyone would find it. It was simply a cathartic thing for us to do."
However , over the next seven months, ocean currents carried that bottle for 1,300 miles, and eventually it washed up on Horn Island off Mississippi - where it was discovered by workers cleaning up the BP spill. The cleanup team carefully removed each letter from it's wrapping and read it out loud, Patty Kraft, who works for the U.S. National Park Service, Told the South Wales Argus, (Adams) local newspaper.
"He was so young, it could be any of our brothers or neighbors. It was so heartfelt. We were just sad for the family and what they were going through, but at the same time we were excited to be part of it," Kraft,45, told the Argus. "When we read it, we wanted to respond; it was like she was reaching out to someone. Even though we're far away, we wanted to say there are people in the world that care."
After a quick Internet search, the cleanup team found Adams details mentioned in an Argus story about how her children Emma and Josh planned to run a half-marathon in the Welsh city of Cardiff in October to raise money for ABF The Soldiers' Charity'. The oil spill workers contacted the paper  and asked if they could deliver a message to the family. And on August 4, Adams received that letter from the Louisiana workers.
"Words cannot express our heartfelt sympathy for your family over the loss of James," the note read. "We extend our grayitude to James for the service he did in Afghanistan, and we recognize the courage, the strength and  the bravery it requires to serve in the arm forces....As we are certain he did before his death, James has continuted to touch the lives of many people in a positive way. Finding that bottle is something we will never forget."
Adams said that she's touched by the oil workers' kind words, and that James life has united the strangers from either side of the Atlantic. "It's strange that the bottle left a family  dealing with a tragedy and was found by a group of people dealing with a different kind of tragedy,"she said.
But she also hopes that the attention generated by the bottle's journey will lead more people in Britain and America to think about sacrifices made by soldiers like  James, and those still serving in Afghanistan.
"It's easy to forget about this horrendous war when it's not on your doorsteps," she said. "I know that James will always be remembered, but I don't want any other soldier of any nationality to be forgotten. We need to spend time thinking about what these guys are doing for us."
My spin : What a loving tribute to Sarah Adams and family gave to her son James  Prosser ... and the letter in a bottle  have brought  a lot of people together , it has formed frindships across the Alantic and now the world....."Have you watched  "A Message  in a Bottle ?" If not , it's worth taking a look  and adding it to your  movie library, the movie has 4 and a half stars. Starring  "Kevin Costner and Robin Wright .'
Kicking back and keeping it real.