Kicker: Finally delivered

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Messages in a bottle from World War I have turned up on a beach in western Australia!

Inside were two notes written in pencil from 19-16 by Australian soldiers headed for Europe.

Deb Brown’s family found the bottle. Sound from ABC Australia:

BROWN: And this poor darling had gone off not knowing what he was about to face, and he seemed quite chipper in the letter.

Private Malcom Neville would die on the front a year later. Surviving the war was shipmate William Harley, who also added a note.

The finder of these messages in a bottle tracked down their descendants. Harley’s granddaughter Ann Turner:

BROWN: We just can’t believe it. It really does feel like a miracle…like our grandfather has reached out to us.

A simple message in a bottle, delivered more than a century later.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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