AMESBURY — The cabin in Monmouth, Maine, was a vacation retreat for the Levesque family.
Each summer, starting the year Sharon Gonthier was 5 years old, the family traveled from their home on Tremont Avenue to their rented cabin down the long dirt road.
It was a tradition that would last for about 20 years, through Gonthier's college years and even for an occasional visit after that until the owner of the cabin passed away and it was sold.
In 1974, when Gonthier was 8, she thought she would leave a memento behind.
Along with her sisters and some friends who had joined the family on vacation that year, they decided on a whim to write messages, put them in a bottle and with her father William Levesque's help, send them out in Annabessacook Lake.
"Please write back to me," Gonthier scrawled, listing her name and address.
It was the last night of that trip — July 8, 1974, which also happened to be her parents' wedding anniversary.
"I got out on the dock and heaved them as far as I could," said Levesque, 76, during a phone interview this week.
A few months later, Gonthier's sister got a call from a woman who found her bottle. But the years went on, and Gonthier never found her bottle or heard from anyone who had.
Until a few months ago — 34 years after Gonthier threw the bottle in the lake.
This spring, Taylor Milliken, 13, and Noah Milliken, 10, of Winthrop, Maine — the town next to Monmouth — were taking a walk and found the bottle washed ashore. They opened it and read the note inside.
From there, with the help of their parents and the Internet, they made a call to the house on Tremont Avenue. Levesque still lives there.
"I was amazed," he said. "It's unbelievable, it really is."
The boys sent Gonthier back her note along with their own letter. She now lives in North Carolina, with her husband, Paul Gonthier (who also is originally from Amesbury) and their two kids: Ryan, 14, and Sara, 12.
She wrote back, asking them questions about the find, and gave them a map of where her family's cabin was and where the bottle was tossed.
"I was beyond excited," Sharon Gonthier said. "I didn't think it would ever be found. I'm so glad those boys found it."
After she threw the bottle with the message into the water, Gonthier said, she would always look to see if she could find it.
Even years later, when she visited the cabin during college with her then-boyfriend (now husband), they would travel around the lake and keep an eye out for the green glass bottle.
"And now I'm glad I never found it," she said, adding she was happy the Millikens had the chance to do so.
In an interview with Maine's Kennebec Journal, the boys said they were happy about their unique find.
"It was kind of cool and kind of freaky because it was from a really long time ago," Noah told the Maine newspaper.
"I read it thinking it was just a joke from some kid," Taylor said in the Kennebec Journal. "Then I showed my dad, and he thought it was really cool."
After finding Gonthier's message, Taylor wrote his own message in a bottle and tossed it into the lake, Gonthier said.
"I just hope that someone finds this little boy's bottle," Gonthier said during a phone interview from North Carolina, adding she wants him to have the happiness and excitement she now feels.
Gonthier, 42, graduated from Amesbury High School in 1984 — the same year as her husband. After living in Maryland, the Gonthiers moved to North Carolina two and a half years ago.
"North Carolina's just a lot more like Amesbury," she said. "It just totally reminded me more of home."
Gonthier still returns home several times a year, including every Christmas.
