
Newfoundland couple's love note in a bottle found 13 years later on Irish shore
Brad and Anita Squires had been dating for about a year when they decided to end a quiet September picnic on Bell Island in 2012 by casting a message out to sea.
"Today we enjoyed dinner, this bottle of wine and each other on the edge of the island," Anita wrote on a piece of lined paper before stuffing it into the bottle.
Brad stood up and hurled it into the waters of Conception Bay.
"I gave it everything I had," he said in an interview on Wednesday. "We didn't see it hit the water, it was too high up. I just assumed it smashed on the rocks."
It didn't.
On Monday afternoon, more than 3,000 kilometres away, Kate and Jon Gay found the bottle on a beach on the Maharees Peninsula along the southwest coast of Ireland. They broke it open that night with members of a local conservation group, who then posted about the letter on Facebook.
In less than an hour, Martha Farrell with the Maharees Conservation Association was reading a text from Anita Squires confirming she and Brad were now married with three children.
"And then I said, 'Yay, love conquers all — and the Atlantic Ocean,"' said Farrell.
"It was unbelievable, because we didn't know what had become of this very romantic couple," she continued. "Our project is about coastal resilience and climate adaptation. And we were wondering, is this love story, is this romance resilient? Would they still be together?"
Brad and Anita Squires were in a long-distance relationship when they had their picnic on Bell Island, which is about a 20-minute drive and a short ferry ride northwest of St. John's. He was a young police officer posted in British Columbia and his future wife was training to be a nurse in Newfoundland.
They were married in 2016, and they have two teenagers and a young child.
"We were young in love and now we're older in love," said Brad Squires.
Farrell said the crowd at the Gays' house made a toast to the Newfoundland couple after reading the letter. Later, across the Atlantic, Brad and Anita Squires toasted the group in Ireland as they shared text messages with Farrell.
"Anita and I both feel like we have new friends, and we're all equally amazed," Brad Squires said.
He and his wife will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary next year. The Maharees Conservation Association, co-founded by Farrell in 2016, is also celebrating its 10th anniversary next year.
"I guess we have some people to visit and a trip to probably plan," Squires said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


CBC
6 days ago
- CBC
Super Thomas gets a retirement party fit for a comic book hero
If you've been to Heroes and Hobbies comics in Mount Pearl, there's a good chance you've seen Super Thomas welcome you in. But the nearly 13-year-old dog is having trouble with the stairs, and his owners have decided it's time to spend more time at home. Thomas was centre stage for a retirement party over the weekend full of cake, photos and pets.


CBC
6 days ago
- CBC
St. John's marks one of its biggest parades ever with ‘Pride'
The 12-day Pride festival celebrated each July in St. John's ended with a parade on Sunday. Over 3,500 people were registered, and many more joined, in what organizers said might be the largest parade to date.


CBC
19-07-2025
- CBC
Holding ancient Greek and Roman coins is touching 'living history,' says N.L. collector
New Steve McBride likes to collect coins depicting animals, like goats and bees For one homesteader on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula, collecting ancient Greek and Roman coins is about holding a piece of history in his hands. Steve McBride has a homestead with his wife Lisa in Mobile, where they raise goats, honeybees, turkeys and ducks for their own consumption, and his ancient coins hit close to home. "I like them a lot because they show scenes that are very familiar to us," McBride told CBC News. He's specifically interested in coins with animals on them, which ties back to his homestead. One coin in his collection depicts a honeybee, which was a symbol of the Roman goddess Diana whose priestesses were called little honeybees and served as beekeepers. "There's a coin I've got here, one of my favourite coins, has basically somebody milking a goat. Which is something I did this morning," he said. "It makes me feel like we're directly connected to our ancestors from, not just not just a generation ago, but from many, many generations ago." Ancient coins also have propaganda messages and depict historical events. McBride said he was a child in 1986 when Halley's Comet last flew by Earth's sky. When he started coin collecting he found the Romans also marked the comet on a coin. "It brings everything full circle," he said. Accessible history McBride said history has been a longtime interest, and about 20 years ago he started acquiring his coins on eBay. Pennies, nickels and dimes are pretty common. "It means that people like me can spend $50 or something and buy one and hold a 2,000-year-old piece of history, something that was spent on bread or on a ticket to the theatre 2,000 years ago," he said. "Being able to touch something that's tangibly connected to people from so long ago … I find it really exciting." Image | Steve McBride and goat Caption: One of the coins in McBride's collection features a goat being milked, which is something he does on his own homestead. (Elizabeth Whitten/CBC) Open Image in New Tab McBride has developed a deep understanding of the time periods from which these coins were made. He said he has been asked to help identify coins for others, including auction houses and museums — all from the comfort of his home. "Basically I'll identify the coins and translate the Latin on them and try to precisely date them," he said. In some cases, details can say the month or even day the coin was struck, he added, and he's even found a few coins that have never been documented before. "When you actually get to research and add a coin to a catalogue, it feels like you're creating a little bit of history or dusting off a little bit of history and putting it back up on a shelf," McBride said. "I find that really rewarding."