The ashes of a British mother whose family set them adrift as a message in a bottle have been found by a German couple after they washed up on a North Sea Island.
Nele, 42, and Holger Spreer-Wree, 45, who live with their daughters on the Suderoog island in Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein region, found the bottle after a recent storm on 19th November.
The couple said the screw-top bottle was tightly closed and held a sandy substance alongside a short message in English: “Hello, this bottle contains the ashes of our mother Jen. She loved to travel.
“We’re letting her continue her passion by carrying on her journeys.”
They said: “It felt a bit macabre at first. But the thought of a beloved mother taking one last journey is actually quite beautiful.”
The family have lived on the Hallig since 2013 and run a sanctuary for endangered domestic animal breeds.
According to the family, the ashes had been in the water for five months after Jen’s children placed them in the North Sea in June 2025 following her death.
Holger said they were surprised by the find and contacted the British family, who told them that Jen had enjoyed travelling and had never been to Germany, adding that they were pleased she could now “tick this place off her list”.
However, because Suderoog is located in a Unesco World Heritage Site in the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea, the family said they could not fulfil the children’s request to return the bottle to the water.
Holger, who has written two children’s books about the Wadden Sea, said: “Simply throwing a plastic bottle back into the water is not an option. We collect rubbish, we don’t create it.”
Instead, the bottle would probably be returned to England by post.
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below. Story By: Joseph Golder, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
The Ananova page is created by and dedicated to professional, independent freelance journalists. It is a place for us to showcase our work. When our news is sold to our media partners, we will include the link here.
