Imagine kindergartener River Vandenberg‘s excitement over finding a bottle on the shores of Ontario’s Lake St. Clair — then imagine his surprise at discovering it had a connection to another student at his school.
It turns out the bottle was tossed there in 1998 by Makenzie Van Eyk, who, along with the rest of her fourth-grade class, was asked to write a letter about the Great Lakes, put it in a bottle and throw it into the water, according to the CBC.
River happens to go to St. John the Baptist Catholic Elementary School in Belle River, Ontario, attended by Makenzie’s daughter Scarlet, who also happens to be in the fourth grade.
River’s grandmother sent the message along to Scarlet’s teacher, who read the note to her class, waiting until the very end to reveal the author’s name.
“My mouth completely dropped,” Scarlet tells the outlet. “And everyone was like, ‘Who’s that? Who’s that?’ And I was like, ‘My mother.’”
Van Eyk, who’d always wondered what happened to the note, says, “It was memorable to do something like that, throw something and think maybe someone will find it later.”