女孩10歲放漂流瓶 23年後收到回信大綱

More than two decades ago, a 10-year-old schoolgirl threw a bottle into the sea off the coast of Hull as she embarked on a family holiday, hoping to get a response from a stranger in a faraway land.

20多年前的一個家庭假日裏，一個10歲的女生在赫爾海灣拋下了一個漂流瓶，希望能得到遠方陌生人的回信。

Inside the bottle was a scrawled letter from Zoe Lemon, a youngster with a love of "ballet, playing the flute and the piano", who had just boarded a ferry bound for a holiday in Germany.

漂流瓶裏的那張字跡潦草的信是Zoe Lemon寫的，她是一個喜愛“芭蕾、演奏豎笛和鋼琴”的女生，她當時剛剛上輪船要去德國度假。

She told her prospective recipients of her pet hamster and fish, both called Sparkle, and her parents who were both teachers.

她告訴了收信人她的寵物是一隻倉鼠和一條魚，它們的名字都是Sparkle，還有她的父母都是教師。

Miss Lemon, of Salford, Greater Manchester, soon forgot about her act of whimsy, eventually marrying and having a child herself.

大曼徹斯特郡索爾福德市的Lemon小姐，很快就忘了她的一時興起之舉，後來她嫁爲人婦，也有了自己的孩子。

But this Christmas she was staggered to receive a reply after 23 years.

但是在今年聖誕，她驚訝地收到了23年後遲來的回信。

It turned out to be a reply to her letter from Piet and Jacqueline Lateur from near Rotterdam. Mr Lateur was walking his dog in the Oosterschelde dykes, near where he and his wife live in Serooskerke, when he found the bottle with Zoe’s letter inside.

原來這是鹿特丹市附近的Piet和Jacqueline Lateur夫婦寄來的回信。這對夫婦住在薩魯斯科克，Lateur先生撿到Zoe的信時，他正在家附近的東斯爾德堤壩邊遛狗。

Mrs Averianov, 33, who works in a jewellery shop, said: 'It’s been a bit crazy really. My parents came to visit on Christmas day and they had this letter from Europe addressed to my maiden name, Lemon.

在珠寶店工作的33歲的Averianov女士說：“這真是太神奇了。我父母在聖誕那天來做客，他們帶來了這封從歐洲寄來的信，收信人的名字用的是我的孃家姓Lemon。”

Since receiving the letter, Mrs Averianov has been in contact with Mr Lateur via email and asked to see photographs of where the bottle was found.

收到回信後，Averianov女士就開始與Lateur先生用電子郵件聯繫，並詢問是否能讓她看看發現漂流瓶的地方的照片。

He told her: 'I am keeping your little letter on my piano. I know you are no longer a little girl but you asked me to write you so I have.'

他告訴她：“我把你的這封短信放在了我的鋼琴上。我知道你已經不是一個小女孩了，但是你要求我給你回信，所以我就回了。”

Mrs Averianov’s father, John Lemon, 68, had encouraged his daughter to throw the message into the sea on a family holiday and now she is considering doing the same for her five-year-old son Maksim.

Averianov女士的父親，68歲的John Lemon，在那次家庭假日裏鼓勵女兒向海裏扔下漂流瓶，現在她也想爲她5歲的兒子Maksim做同樣的事。

She said: 'I’ll probably wait until he’s a bit older and can understand and write a letter, but maybe we’ll do it by attaching it to a balloon.'

她說：“我可能要等到他再長大一點，直到他懂得怎麼寫一封信，但是我們也許會把信件綁在一個氣球上。”