I've always wanted to try the message in a bottle thing

Has anyone ever seen the TV movie "Mermaid?" (No, I'm not talking about the Cher/Winona Ryder movie!) It's about a little girl whose father has died and she's having trouble accepting it. Her mom has told her he's in heaven but she wants to know when he's coming home. Her grandmother suggests she write him a letter, which of course she addresses to Heaven. It gets returned to her as undeliverable and she's even more upset. Then someone suggests that she tie the letter to a balloon so it can float to heaven. She gets a balloon at a local fair that has a mermaid on it, ties the letter to it and lets it go. By the way, she's in Maine (I think, it could be some other New England state).

Sweet right, a different twist on the message in a bottle story. Of course someone has to find the balloon right? Yep. A few days later the balloon has managed to travel thousands of miles (without getting damaged) to Prince Edward Island, Canada to a small community called Mermaid. A hunter sees the balloon, notices its got a mermaid on it (remember, the name of the community he lives in) and goes to check it out and of course finds the letter. He takes it home to his family, where they open the letter, read it and are so touched by its contents that they respond. From that moment on the little girl begins to recover from her father's death and a life-long friendship begins.

The skeptic in all of us is probably saying, how nice, very sweet, but please, really? The balloon travels thousands of miles without popping? It just happens to land in Mermaid? But get this... the story is actually true! Of course, from what I understand a few liberties were taken, but overall the main facts are true.

Makes you think, doesn't it? I mean is it just random or was something guiding that balloon?

Just a few days ago there was a similar story in the news, though this one had a bittersweet ending. Every year, since 1991, on her birthday Ann Hernandez and her boyfriend would drink a bottle of champagne on an island somewhere off the coast of Massachusetts. Afterward, she would write a little note, tuck it in the bottle and her boyfriend would throw it out to see. The note always said something like "Ann Hernandez is a lighthouse keeper on Thacher Island - Cape Ann Light Station and had a birthday there on [whatever the date was]. Drop her a card at home.’’ The message included her year-round Illinois address.

Neither Ann nor her boyfriend ever really thought anyone would find one of her bottles, but this year someone did. A French couple found the bottle bobbing along the coastline near their small French village and plucked it out of the water. The letter inside was dated 2003. The couple quickly wrote a postcard and sent it off. But the postcard came back undeliverable. Their curiosity about the woman piqued, they contacted the Thatcher Island association to try and find her. The president of the association had sad news. Ann Thatcher had died suddenly at age 61 the year before.

The couple were put in contact with Ann's boyfriend and have slowly begun to form a friendship.

There is something about these stories that touches the soul, but I don't know why exactly. But there's something very compelling about them. As if magic exists, or as if sometimes, wishes do come true.

What do you think?