MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE: Woman receives response to message sailed 18 years ago

Two families united internationally after a woman received a response to her message in a bottle sailed 18 years ago.

Written by Rita Ganim, the note was not a cry for help or a map to hidden treasure, it was just a casual note asking for a response from whoever found it.

Ganim sent the message in a bottle into the sea in Massachusetts in August 2000 while she was visiting her daughter and son-in-law.

The message?

"Hi friend, I am a visitor to Gloucester. If and when you find this note please contact me. Cheers, Rita"

That bottle would later, 18 years to be exact, turn up in the shores of Lower Woods Harbor in Nova Scotia, Canada in the hands of 11-year-old Dallas Goreham.

Dallas told YNN Buffalo he nearly dismissed the bottle as trash until he opened it up and found the note.

"I was really surprised cause I didn't think I was gonna find a note in a bottle, but I did!" said Dallas.

When he found it, Dallas took it to his mother, Tara Goreham, who then took to Google to find Rita.

Upon searching for Rita, they discovered she has been a columnist for the Buffalo News, and it all went smooth sailing from there.

On Thursday, Dallas had a message for his new found friend, "I want to say thanks for throwing the bottle because if I never found this bottle I wouldn't be all over the news."

Now, the families are hoping to meet in person sometime in the near future.