A girl found a message in a bottle while vacationing with her family — and the family was shocked when they realized where it came from.

Josie Law, 11, of Howell, Mich., was on Anna Maria Island in Florida when she made the unusual discovery.

“I was just walking, and the waves were coming up, and [the bottle] was washing on shore,” Josie told local news station Tampa Bay 10. 

“The waves went like a crash into each other and went back, so then I grabbed it really quickly and I showed my mom,” she said. “I thought it was a piece of trash, and then I saw the note in a bottle and I was like, ‘It’s a note in a bottle.’ ”

Josie went on to tell the outlet that she and her mother opened the bottle and pulled out a note dated Aug. 17, 2018.

“Hello, people who found this. You will be happy that you found this. Why? Because you will know me with this number” the note read, followed by a phone number.  

Josie’s mother, Paris Hoisington, said she decided to text the phone number as opposed to call it — and she and Josie were shocked when they received a text back from a 21-year-old woman in Hawaii.

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The woman — who wished to remain anonymous — told Tampa Bay 10 that she and her younger brother wrote the message when they were 13 and 8, respectively.

“It was super fun to see that our bottle ended up all the way in Florida and that they ended up reaching out to us. Definitely did not expect that to happen,” she said.

As to how the bottle ended up thousands of miles from Hawaii?

Bobby Deskins, Tampa Bay 10’s chief meteorologist said it was “technically possible,” even though the odds were extremely low.

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“It would generally have to go north out of Hawaii to get into this current, come back down the West Coast of the United States, crossover, and head over through the Philippines and then over towards the southwest coast of South America,” he began.

“Go underneath South America and then up along this current on the West Coast of Africa up into the intertropical convergence zone where our hurricanes sometimes come from and then back up through the Caribbean by the Bahamas and up towards Anna Maria Island,” he added.

And while the notes’ authors enjoyed learning that someone had received their message from the past, they also said that they would no longer recommend that others attempt to do the same.

“We do not want to encourage others to do this because it is littering and illegal! We did not know this at the time, as we were young kids and copying something that someone else had done before us,” they told the Tampa 10.

A woman says that her mother-in-law is offering to pay for in vitro fertilization, but she’s worried about accepting for fear of what will be expected in return.

In a post shared to Reddit, she writes: “My partner and I married later in life, and now, in our 40s, we’re trying to conceive. We’re currently considering IVF. Financially, we’re doing fine and live comfortably on our earnings, but IVF is undeniably expensive.”

“My husband suggested that we might need to ask his mother for financial help to support our IVF journey,” she continues. “My immediate response was an absolute NO.”

While her husband believes she’s “being too prideful by refusing help,” the woman notes her relationship with his mother is tenuous at best.

“Here’s some context: My MIL has been difficult from the start,” she writes in the post. “She’s treated me like a rival for her son’s love and attention. I didn’t even have the wedding I wanted because I knew she’d make it about her. She still financially supports my husband’s siblings with big purchases—cars, houses—you name it. But it’s always with strings attached. Money is her tool for control.”

The woman adds that she has “worked hard to establish boundaries” and has long “maintained low contact.”

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“My gut tells me that accepting her money will come at a cost—emotional, psychological, and possibly even parental,” she writes. “I fear she’ll see it as buying access to our IVF journey and future child. I can already imagine her insisting on updates, knowing the details of every success or failure, the due date, the gender—things that should be private between my partner and me.”

Now, she’s seeking input from the internet, asking: “Am I wrong to refuse financial help, knowing it might limit the number of IVF cycles we can afford, and possibly reduce our chances of becoming parents? Or am I right to draw a firm boundary now—to protect my future nuclear family from interference and control?”

Other Reddit users are advising the woman not to accept the financial help.

“She absolutely will use this for control at some point. If you have the funds for IVF yourself then it’s a no-brainer,” wrote one commenter.

Added another: “She’s going to think it’s her baby if she helps financially.”

A woman thinks her neighbor is having an affair and is torn about sharing her suspicions.

In a post on the popular U.K.-based forum Mumsnet, the woman shared that she lives next door to a couple with the woman in her 30s and the man in his 40s.

“Both are pleasant, and the man does shift work – one week a month, he leaves early evening and works into the following day,” the woman wrote.

In recent months, the woman and her partner have noticed that “a couple of times a week when her partner is on lates, the lady will be picked up by a car (the same one),” she continued.

The woman’s neighbor doesn’t drive, and the car picks her up around 6:30/7 p.m. and doesn’t “return until closer to midnight – the car will usually linger outside with the engine running as they are in it chatting.”

As the nights have gotten lighter, the woman and her partner have noticed that the wife’s appearance has gotten flashier.

“She is always ‘done up’ in makeup and wearing flattering outfits – tight dresses, heels etc. On one occasion, my DH [dear husband] was out the front and he said there was an overbearing smell of perfume. She rarely appears like this at any other time when her partner is home,” the woman detailed.

“She has gone out again tonight and we’ve noticed her – again the same car, and her all dressed up,” she continued.

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The woman and her partner are now convinced the wife is up to no good.

“We are convinced she is having an affair, it has all the hallmarks and it’s too much of a coincidence to only be when her partner is working late,” she wrote. “I feel like morally, I should say something – but I don’t want to put my foot in it. ”

Curious for opinions, she asked, “Would anyone have ideas on how to approach this?”

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Responses to the post were more firm in their judgment about her sleuthing.

“Mind your own business,” one user bluntly put it. 

“You have no idea what’s going on, and it’s none of your business. I’d leave well alone,” another wrote.

Others offered scenarios where the meetups could be innocent, such as the neighbor could be with a coworker or brother. In an update, the poster felt justified in wanting to share her suspicions.

“Because our neighbor is a very nice man and if I was in his position, I’d want to know?” she wrote. “Heck, they could be trying for a baby for all I know, and I’d potentially save him from the mess that would bring.”

A small plane used for skydiving has crashed in Tennessee.

The plane crashed soon after it left Tullahoma Regional Airport at around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 8, according to Lyle Russell, a spokesperson for the city of Tullahoma, which is about 75 miles south of Nashville.

The spokesperson said in a statement to PEOPLE that 20 people, including crew members and passengers, were aboard the aircraft when it crashed.

“There were no casualties,” Russell said. “There are some minor injuries. The scene is being secured by local authorities while FAA officials are en route to continue the investigation.”

The Tennessee Highway Patrol said on social media that several of those people were airlifted to nearby hospitals and that the plane landed near the town’s Old Shelbyville Road.

“Three were sent for medical treatment via helicopter and one sent by ground transport for more serious injuries to local hospitals,” Russell said. “Other minor injuries were treated by first responders on scene.”

“The plane involved was a skydiving plane, a DeHaviland DH-6 Twin Otter,” Russell added. “No ground facilities or airport facilities were damaged and there were no injuries were reported from the ground.”

Social media footage shared by the highway patrol shows the small plane broken down with lots of parts missing as it sits in an open grassy field. Law enforcement vehicles and fire trucks can be seen surrounding the plane, which seemingly had part of its wings snapped off in the crash.

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This crash comes amid of concerns about plane crashes in the U.S., following a number of both private and commercial crashes this year.

One of the most significant of these came in January, when American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army helicopter collided over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.

Andrea Merriman’s world came to a stop in 2009. 

Her ex-husband, Shawn Merriman, told her that he was living a double life, admitting he had been running a $20 million Ponzi scheme for over a decade.

Shawn, the head of a successful investment company and a bishop at their church, turned himself in to federal agents and was imprisoned for fraud soon after.

The government quickly seized and repossessed all of their assets, most of which were purchased with investors’ money. Shawn, dubbed the “Mormon Madoff,” was sentenced to 12 years behind bars.

Meanwhile, Andrea was left nearly penniless to care for their four children, the youngest of whom was 3 at the time, and had to quickly figure out how the rest of her life would go.

Andrea, 58, talks to PEOPLE exclusively about why she’s sharing her story now and how she’s healed over the past 16 years.

“I remember thinking that, at the time, ‘I’m humiliated to be married to a criminal. I’m humiliated getting divorced,'” she shares. “I’m humiliated to go from riches to rags, I’m humiliated, but to do it in the public eye compounded it and multiplied.” 

Along with the humiliation, Andrea was also dealing with a “degree of guilt” knowing the man she loved had scammed people out of millions.

“There was a lot of guilt around what if I hadn’t been such a peacemaker, what if I hadn’t been such a kind and supportive wife, what if I hadn’t been so trusting,” she says.

“Would it have been possible for him to do it so long and then guilt all the people who probably trusted him because of the kind of life I lived and the kind of person I was? Yeah, but some of it has been because he was a criminal and I didn’t know it.”

After her husband’s conviction stripped them of everything, Andrea moved to Utah with her four children for a fresh start.

Now, she’s turning to TikTok to share her story of rebirth. Her first video, detailing the first 24 hours after her life was turned upside down, went viral, amassing over 10 million views.

She’s gained over 70,000 followers, with users eager to learn how she rebuilt her life. 

Andrea says she always knew she wanted to do something with her story. She was talking to a group of 20-somethings when one of them suggested she start a TikTok account.

“When it happened to me, I felt like I was alone in the world, and there was no one who lived my experience,” she explains. “I started my blog in 2010 to help at least one person by sharing my story and getting my name out there so they knew who to call or email if they needed advice.”

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“That was why I went to TikTok,” she continues. “There’s a whole new audience, a new generation. We need messages of hope and encouragement, and we need people to model how to survive and conquer adversity.”

She shares that her kids were a primary driving force in her recovery and journey, motivating her to forgive and build trust again. 

“Forgiveness has come with therapy. Faith and religion have helped me,” she says. “Being a parent as well, because, as a parent, you cannot require from your kids what you’re not willing to do yourself.”

“When we discovered what happened, my kids looked at me with tears and said, ‘What has happened?'” she recalls. “I said, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do, but the one thing I know we’re going to do is we’re going to forgive, not for him, but for us.’ ”

Despite everything she’s been through, Andrea still “believes in trust” and that “people are good and kind.”

“Trust is a choice,” she says. “Moving forward is a choice. Resilience… it’s a skill, but it’s a choice. We have more choices than we realize, but when we acknowledge that, we take control of our agency and choose to act rather than be acted upon.”

Years after the initial shock and heartbreak, Andrea remarried, and her family is doing well. Her youngest recently graduated from high school, and her three oldest kids all graduated from college and “are building careers.”

“They’ve grown up and become adults. They’re good, kind, hard-working, and have empathy,” she tells PEOPLE.

“The 16 years of our recovery have been a lesson, a demonstration in resilience and trying new things,” she adds.

Andrea believes “we each have a life here” and “a mission to fulfill.”

“Every one of us has the gifts we need to succeed. We must find them and our hard times help us find them,” she shares.

“I dug deep and found them,” she adds. “I got a lot of help along the way from kind people, and now I’m at the point where I can pay it back and share what I’ve learned and help others, which is a great place to be in.”

For those who find themselves in a similar situation, Andrea advises them to “focus on something other than your misery in the middle of your horror.” 

“I didn’t spend a day in bed. I don’t know how, but I was afraid that if I did, I might never get out of bed again,” she says. “I didn’t let myself indulge in hatred of my ex-husband because I was afraid I would never be able to pull myself out if I did.” 

She continues, telling those who need it to “focus on something other than your misery, have gratitude, [and try] to accomplish something every day.”

“Being a parent, focusing on my kids helped me,” she says. “My worst nightmare in life was to be financially responsible for someone other than myself, and in the end, that’s what I got, and I learned I could do it.”

“I survived, which is a huge thing I learned about myself because I didn’t even realize I would be capable of that. We were poor, but we survived.”

It was an ordinary day in October 2023 when Kasey Allen’s world changed.

Allen tells PEOPLE that she was tidying up while her kids were playing just a short distance away. However, as she was finishing up her chores, she didn’t notice her then-16-month-old son, Asa, swallow a button battery. 

“Asa and my other two children were playing as I was picking up and cleaning in our RV,” Allen recalls. “At some point, Asa grabbed the remote to the backup camera, which was mounted to the steering wheel, dropped it, the battery fell out, and picked it up and swallowed it.”

When Allen walked back into the area, she found the remote lying on the floor, and about 20 minutes later, Asa started showing scary symptoms.

Allen says the little one began salivating, was noticeably flushed in his face, and became very whiny and fussy. Eventually, symptoms of fatigue began setting in.

“I was unsure of what was going on because I didn’t know there was a battery in the remote and didn’t know the signs of symptoms of button battery ingestion,” Allen explains.

“I became worried as his symptoms lingered for about an hour, and then he started coughing up black flakes, which was the outer covering of the battery,” she adds. “We rushed to the ER, where he was X-rayed, and they found he had swallowed a button battery.”

According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, more than 3,500 button batteries are ingested per year in the United States. Signs someone has swallowed a button battery include: noisy breathing, coughing, drooling, difficulty swallowing, a hoarse voice, vomiting, chest or abdominal pain, and gagging, coughing or choking with eating or drinking.

When swallowed, the small lithium batteries often get stuck in the throat and saliva triggers an electric current, which can lead to severe burning, esophageal perforation, vocal cord paralysis and more.

Allen says the recovery process has been “long, disappointing, expensive, exhausting for our family, and extremely hard to watch our son go through.”

“He’s had to go weeks with only IV nutrition, months of torture going back and forth to the hospital, and has dealt with the difficulty of eating and swallowing for 18 months.”

Allen has been sharing Asa’s story and journey of recovery on TikTok. The video she shared of Asa going in for his 27th dilation treatment went viral, amassing over 5.5 million views.

“Miraculously, Asa has zero scarred tissue in his esophagus after four treatments from the new facility/doctor from whom we sought a second opinion,” she says.

“He’s had approximately 27 dilations to stretch his esophagus. We haven’t had to give him any feeds through his G-tube since his first dilation with his new doctor at the end of February. He is growing so big.”

Allen hopes to raise awareness of the dangers of button batteries by sharing their story online.

“Be aware of what electronics in your home may contain a button battery and make sure it’s properly secured with the screw that should now be in place, thanks to Reese’s Law,” she says. “Know the signs that follow the ingestion of a button battery.” 

“If you think your child has swallowed a button battery, honey is said to slow the corrosion of the battery and could potentially be life-saving.” A hack, Allen shares, that she didn’t know at the time. 

Allen chose to share Asa’s story on TikTok because she knows the app reaches millions of people around the world.

“It was my best bet to get this information out quickly and efficiently,” she shares. “We’ve had an outpouring of support and prayers and parents thankful for the information and awareness.” 

For others that find themselves in a similar situation, she urged them to “find a support group, stay strong, and most importantly, learn how to advocate for your child.”

A woman says that her boyfriend has been “cut off” by his family for his decision to move in with her — but now she’s not even sure she wants to be with him.

The 26-year-old detailed her experience on a forum on the U.K.-based community site Mumsnet.com, a platform where women can seek advice from other women about interpersonal dilemmas. In her post, the woman says that she is in a “fairly new relationship” with a 22-year-old man she’s known online for “years.”

The woman explains that they only met in person in late 2024, but things “progressed quickly” after that. She says he recently moved out of his mom’s home to move in with her and her eight-year-old daughter — a decision that led to him being “cut off” by his family due to cultural reasons. 

The problem? The woman says she is feeling overextended and is now having second thoughts about whether or not living together was the right move.

“I keep having thoughts like, ‘Should he really live here?’ and ‘Am I better off alone so I can focus on myself and my child?’ ” she confesses in the post. 

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“I love him, but I’m also constantly overwhelmed,” she continues, before adding that her daughter has special needs and the majority of the mental load of maintaining the household falls on her.

“I’m mentally and physically burned out, trying to hold everything together. I feel like I never get proper alone time or space to reset,” the original poster (OP) says, adding, “I’m often irritated around him for no clear reason, even if he’s not doing anything wrong.” 

“I don’t want to lose him, but I feel disconnected, and I don’t know how to tell what’s burnout vs. what’s a sign that this isn’t working,” she says, while also saying that they both have “trust issues” due to “things that happened between us before.”

“Has anyone else been in this in-between place — loving someone, but not sure if being together is helping or hurting right now? How do you figure out what you actually need when everything feels too full to think clearly?” she asks at the end of her post.

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The vast majority of commenters provided tough love to the OP, with many stating that they believe she moved in with her boyfriend much too soon — and that she should course-correct as soon as possible.

“You shouldn’t be moving someone you barely know in with your [daughter]. Even if your child wasn’t in the picture, though, it’s a new relationship. You have enough on your plate. Ask him to leave,” said one person.

“Oh, you have gone about this completely the wrong way, I’m afraid,” said someone else. “Your relationship has alienated him from his family, which is going to put immense pressure on you both.”

They added, “I think you should tell him that he needs to go back [to] his family and end the relationship with you.”

“It’s a ludicrously unwise decision to move in a man you hardly know with your young daughter. This is not the behavior of a mature parent making good decisions for her child,” said someone else.