On September 5, 2023, a fellow woodturner posted this story and photo on a forum I participate in and agreed to allow me to share it with you.

Sandra's Journey

 

While out fishing, I often pick up stuff (mostly litter) that I find floating around in lake Superior, and on Labor Day I came home with a plastic grocery bag, a plastic bottle, and a beer can. The cool part is that the bottle contained a note, and a small glass vial of ashes. The note said that the ashes were Sandra’s, beloved mother and grandmother. It stated that she had lived a good long life, and her only regret was that she never got to travel and see the world. So her family decided to send her on a final journey, and asked anyone who happened upon the bottle to record where and when they found it, and to send a photo of the place where it was found to an email address. I am only the second person to find the bottle, that started its voyage a few weeks ago, and about 125 miles northwest of where I met Sandra.

 

After getting home and reading the note, I thought it would be fun to make a small urn for Sandra, so she could continue her journey in style. So I went to work, keeping in mind that I wanted the ashes to stay in the original glass vial (2.2” tall by 5/8” diameter), and the urn with vial inside had to fit thru the neck of the bottle (inner diameter = 1”). It took me about 2 hours to produce the small cylindrical urn shown in the photo. I sent photos of the urn to the email address, and asked permission to include the urn in her bottle as she sailed on to the next port of call. The family loved it, so I packed her up and sent her on her way. If you have made it this far, thanks for reading my rather long-winded story - and if you live on or near the great lakes or the St Lawrence Seaway, keep an eye out for Sandra as she is headed your way!