A DAUGHTER who placed the ashes of her Royal Navy veteran father in a bottle with a picture, message and tribute about his life, and launched it into the sea near her home in Torbay, has spoken of her amazement and delight that it was found just a few weeks later on a Cornish beach that she and her father had visited during a memorable family holiday.

Teresa Ornyik, who lives in Torquay, says that she had a special bond with her father Frank Southworth, who after his Navy career went on to serve as a police officer.

Sadly, towards the end of his life her father developed both Alzheimer’s and dementia and also had a couple of nasty falls. He went into care in September of last year but as a result of the COVID lockdowns then “pretty much gave up” – but during his last three days of life, when he was not fully conscious, she had sat at his bedside holding his hand and playing his favourite Don Williams and Johnny Cash songs. He had held onto her hand and tapped in time to the music until he passed away on February 1 of this year.

Teresa says that after her dad’s funeral she had considered scattering his ashes at Dartmouth, where her father had met her mother while at the Britannia Royal Naval College.

But then a friend of the family had suggested the message in a bottle idea to her – and she thought it wonderfully apt given her father’s past service as a sailor.

In her message put in the bottle she also provided contact details for herself in case anyone should find the bottle, as she was curious as to how far it would float. She imagined it might be months or years before she heard anything, if she ever did at all.

However, it was only a few weeks later that Tim Noon, who lives in Mevagissey, came across the bottle while kayaking on a litter-picking mission off Portmellon Beach. He told me he was paddling towards Chapel Point when he came across what looked like quite a scruffy bottle among some other litter along the shore.

He was just tutting to himself about who threw that there when he noticed that there was a message in the bottle. He picked it up and then opened it when he got home. It was then that he read the moving tribute to Frank Southworth and got in touch with Teresa to let her know he had found her message in a bottle.

Teresa says she felt emotional and tearful when she heard where the bottle had washed up – as in 2012 she, father Frank and the rest of the family had spent a very enjoyable holiday at that very beach of Portmellon. She said that a friend had since suggested that perhaps Frank’s spirit had swum back there because he had loved it so much.

Teresa and her family had been due to visit Portmellon to meet up with Tim Noon and thank him for finding the message in a bottle last weekend, but unfortunately her daughter was poorly so the meeting will happen in a few weeks.

In the meantime Tim has put up the message and a photo of himself telling the story on the wall of a beachside café – along with the bottle on a shelf.