'Hug From Heaven': Message In A Bottle Found 32 Years Later Brings Joy

NORTH FORK, NY — A message in a bottle that began as a classroom assignment more than 30 years ago has turned into an incredible story of fate that's helped a grieving family's heart to heal.

When Adam Travis woke up last Thursday, his plan was just to go about cleaning up his duck blinds after hunting season on the shore of the Shinnecock Reservation in Southampton. During his trips back and forth to his truck, he found an old bottle, passing by it several times before stopping to take a closer look.

"At first, it just caught my eye, but I finally just picked it up. There was an older piece of paper in the bottle that was intriguing," Travis said.

Although he tried to open the bottle, he was unable to remove the paper at the beach; the top of the bottle was too small, so he took it home. At first, Travis tried to use tweezers to remove the paper inside, but saw that it was beginning to tear. So, as a last resort, he broke the bottle over a cardboard box. There was a blank piece of construction paper rolled up and folded, and at first, Travis thought that any message might be faded away because it was so old.

"But then, the postcard fell out, still intact," he said. "It was written in pencil, and there was no water damage. When I unrolled it, I thought, 'Wow,'" he said. "When I saw the date, October, 1992, I thought, 'This is just as old as me, I was born in 1991.'"

What Travis found was an assignment given by Mattituck High School Teacher Richard E. Brooks in his earth science class 32 years ago; the students were asked to send messages in bottles to study ocean currents.

The message read: "Dear Finder, As part of an earth science project for 9th grade, this bottle was thrown into the Atlantic Ocean near Long Island. Please fill in the information below and return the bottle 2 us. Merci, Gracias, Danke, Thank you, Sean and Ben."

Students Shawn McGill and Ben Doroski sent the message adrift on the sea, where it likely traveled the world for three decades before wending its way back to the East End shoreline.

Travis then posted about his incredible find on social media, searching at first for the students and then, on the Mattituck High School Alumni page — where the story took on life and meaning with unprecedented fervor.

And ultimately, it was there that Mr. Brooks' family was able to connect with the man who'd brought a piece of their father back to them, just at the time they needed it most — because their father and a beloved teacher to so many, Richard Brooks, died in September.

John Brooks, Richard's son, spoke with Patch about the discovery that meant everything.

"This whole thing is incredible," he said. "I'm blown away."

The story, he added, has taken on a life of its own. "I've never been involved in something that's gone viral — and I haven't lifted a finger to stoke the flames of where this has been going."

Despite the social media frenzy, the true meaning of the message in the bottle resonates on a far deeper level to Brooks, his mother Sharon, and his sisters Lori and Amy; their baby sister Heather, tragically, died suddenly at 49 just three weeks after their father's death. Although their father had suffered from Alzheimer's, his death was still a "gut punch," he said.

And the sudden loss and still unexplained loss of their sister left their family wreathed in heavy grief.

That's why the postcard, Brooks said, is such a light in the proverbial darkness. "I spoke to my mom last night and she was crying — and she's cried a lot in recent months —but this time, they were tears of joy. This couldn't have come at a more perfect time. This is something my family desperately needed; we’ve been really just reeling from these two losses, one after the other."

Reflecting on his family, Brooks said his mother, now living in Boynton Beach, FL, and his father were both teachers at Mattituck High School.

"My sisters and I all had my dad for science for 9th grade; it was a small school," he said. "My mom was subbing and we had my mother as a substitute." All their friends who came to their house had also had both parents as teachers at school, he said.

"My sisters and I were held to one heck of a standard," Brooks said, a smile in his voice. "There was no special treatment; we were held to a higher bar, especially in a small town."

His father, Brooks said, "never sought the spotlight. He didn't want recognition. Now, he's finally getting it."

His father, Brooks said, taught at Mattituck High School for about 40 years, beginning his career at Eastport. He coached girls varsity basketall for about 30 years, as well as coaching soccer and track and starting a sailing team. In addition, he went to the United State Merchant Marines Academy at Kings Point and was an All-American hurdler.

Like his father, Brooks was an athlete growing up. "I played every sport known to man when I was a kid and I cannot remember a single time when I said to my dad, 'Let's go shoot hoops, have a catch, play soccer,' and he said, 'No, I'm too busy, or too tired.' How many people can say that about their dads?"

His parents' love story, Brooks said, was one that seemed written in the proverbial stars. His mother, whose maiden name was Lellmann, was from Greenport and Brooks' family, from Orient. "They were born in 1939 at Eastern Long Island Hospital, a week apart. My grandmother was ready to go home with my mother as my dad's mom was in labor. The two moms shared a room for a day."

His parents began dating at 14, married at 21, and in August of 2023, celebated their 62nd wedding anniversary. "It was a small-town love story," Brooks said. "We'd go to family weddings and the DJ would call out the couples who'd been married 10, or 20 years. They were always the last ones on the dance floor."

With her husband's death, his mother was left bereft. "She literally lost her life partner," Brooks said. "From the time they were born, they had a connection."

The loss of both their father and sister has blindsided his family, Brook said.

"My family is very close," he said. "My mother lives and breathes her family."

His father, he said, was an inspiration to generations of students. Earth science held great deep meaning to a man who devoted his life to teaching young people.

"He was truly involved and cared about the environment 50 years before it became a matter of national consciousness," Brooks said. His father, he said, would take bottles and cans to Westhampton for recycling back in the 70s; he remembers taking drives with the car filled with bags of aluminum. The cans would be sold and the funds used for items for Brooks' classroom, his son said.

"It was intuitive to him, he believed that we needed to save the planet or we were going to be in trouble. That's the kind of person he was," Brooks said.

Although his father was asked many times to transition into an administrative position, he respectfully declined, preferring to stay in the classroom, teaching. "He'd tell jokes, sing funny songs, do anything to get the kids interested," Brooks said. "That's where the idea of the messages in a bottle came from, so that the kids could learn about ocean currents."

The bottles were tossed into the Atlantic Ocean; sometimes, off the Cross Sound Ferry into the Long Island Sound — and if a local resident was going on a voyage, they'd ask to take a bottle and throw it overboard.

The bottles have been found around the world over the years, one in the Azores, another near Ireland, one off the coast of Africa.

But the letter found last week on the beaches of the Shinnecock Reservation was priceless, in so many ways.

"My sister Amy said, 'This feels like a hug from heaven,'" Brooks said. Another friend commented, "What a beautiful angel tap."

The message, Brooks said, likely made its way across the Atlantic, to the United Kingdom and then back up to Long Island with the Gulf Stream. "It found its way home," he said.

Since news of the bottle broke, the media attention has been incredible, Brooks said.

When asked how his father would have reacted to the recognition, Brooks answered immediately and without hesitation: "He would say this was a great thing for Ben and Shawn, his two students, and he would defer the credit and the spotlight. He'd say, 'This is great, this is why I teach these things' — let my students tell you more about it.' That's what's so nice about this. He never sought any recognition and he's finally getting it. And it's so well-deserved, he was just such an inspiration."

Brooks said his own son, Christopher, now 32, learned about science from his beloved grandfather.

Brooks treasures a photo of his son, 5, on his father's lap at the Museum of Science in Boston. Today, his son has earned a PhD in neurobiology from Boston University and when he defended his dissertation, he thanked his family, but "my dad was the only one he mentioned by name, 'Bampi,'" Brooks said. "My father was the one who planted that seed of scientific curiosity in my son."

The message in the bottle, he said, has meant a sign of hope for his entire family.

"We feel it's a message to my mother and my sisters, and to me, from my father and my sister. It's them, saying, 'We're okay. Everything is going to be okay — and we're watching over you. Here's a little sign.'"

Although his family no longer lives in Mattituck, in the home his parents bought in 1965 — the home was sold in 2020 to pay for his father's care — the roots and the memories on the North Fork run deep. "It was the only home my sisters and I ever knew," Brooks said.

When the home was being sold, Brooks went and sorted through the basement, 50-some-odd years of laughter and tears. Over the years, friends and family had signed the rafters in the rec room and before he left, Brooks wrote on the last, untouched rafter: "The Brooks Family," with their names and the dates, 1965 to 2020. A photo of that rafter is featured on the last page of a photo album compiled by his sister, a collection of precious family memories.

His family, Brooks said, is forever grateful to Travis not just for finding the bottle and sharing his discovery on social media and finding them, but for returning the postcard to them —a precious link to their father.

"As the crow flies, this bottle was found about 10 miles from where the science project started," he said. "The fact that he found 32 years later, that it found its way home, is mind-blowing to me."

Travis agreed. Not only was he awed to find the bottle, a piece of local history found in the place where he spends his winters hunting for water fowl — but also, he was moved to bring the postcard home to a family that so needed a message of hope.

"It was cool and touching, too — a good closure for their situation. To have that postcard returned to them is really beautiful," he said.

Brooks said he plans to continue the journey. In the spring, when his daughter graduates from college, the family — Richard Brooks' wife, children and grandchildren — will gather on the beach, on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, and toss a new bottle into the surf, a note tucked inside.

"We will do this as a remembrance of my dad," Brooks said. "So that one day, 32 years from now, someone can find the bottle and say, 'What a great story! What a great, full circle."