Imagine walking along the ocean and finding a bottle with a message - except the message is not someone looking for help, but someone looking for a friend. If that's not exciting enough - how about if that person actually ends up being a really good friend for the rest of your life?

While this sounds like a story from a book or movie, it is a true story of two eight-year olds from two different continents.

Sandra Morris (now Mrs. Morris-Czapla), pictured here, was just eight years old, when she threw a bottle with a message, while on a cruise ship from Europe to America. The message simply said - 'Whoever finds this bottle, write to me at ...........' (her address).

Three months later, Rosalind Hearse (now Mrs. Causey), was walking along the beach near South Wales with her father and saw something shining in the sand. She picked up the bottle and wrote her first letter to Sandra.

It was the beginning of a great friendship, which continues even today, 40 years later.

Sandra now lives with her family in Pennsylvania U.S.A, while Rosalind and her family live in Haverhill, Suffolk in the UK. Their first face-to-face meeting happened in 1978, eight years after Rosalind found the bottle.

Since then, they have met several times, but this week's meeting is their most special one.

Yesterday, to celebrate their friendship, they visited the spot on Morfa Beach, near Margam, South Wales - the spot the bottle had washed ashore exactly 40 years ago! Simply amazing!

The next time you are thinking of putting a message in a bottle or see one with a message in it, go for it for you may just have found your new best friend.

Source: DailyMail.co.Uk, Telegraph.Co.uk