Wife puts husband's ashes in a bottle and throws them in the sea with a note... and now receives a call when people find him to let her know where he is

• Gordon 'Skinny' Smith died of a brain hemorrhage at 57 in March 2012
  
• Three weeks later his wife put his ashes in a bottle with a note and $2 and threw it into the sea
• The bottle has now been found twice in Florida and traveled 80 miles

By Alex Greig

Published: 15:45 EDT, 28 July 2013 | Updated: 11:23 EDT, 1 August 2013

When travel-loving globetrotter Gordon Smith died of a brain haemorrhage aged 57, his wife Beverly felt he wasn't ready to stop exploring.

So she packed his ashes into a plastic bottle with a note and $2, dropped him into the ocean from  their favourite holiday retreat in Florida and waved farewell to him one last time.

Her note was simple. It read: 'My husband Gordon Scott 'Skinny' Smith loved to travel. Call and tell me where he is.'

And to her surprise, two weeks later she received a phone call from a man named Ross who had found Gordon on a beach 50 miles up the coast.

'Gordon loved the ocean,' said Beverly from her home in Tennessee. 'I wanted to let him travel a little and let him sail away.' She even joked that he would have loved to have visited his relatives in Scotland.

Well-traveled: Beverly Smith sent her husband on his final journey along with a note asking people who found Gordon Scott Smith's ashes to call and tell her where he is

Love of her life: Beverly Smith with her husband Gordon 'Skinny' Smith who passed away in March 2012

Ross then took his boat six miles into the ocean, wrote his own note to accompany the former construction worker and sent Gordon on his way again.

'I called his wife to let her know where her husband was and she was so, so happy. She said the money was for a phone call to let her know where he was,' reads Ross' note.

Last week, Skinny Smith turned up again, this time in Key Colony Beach, Florida.

Judi Glunz Sidney was cleaning litter from the shore of the beach in front of Glunz Ocean Beach Hotel and Resort when she noticed a plastic bottle with money and what appeared to be sand inside.

Upon reading Beverly Smith's note, Sidney realized the 'sand' was actually the ashes of Gordon Skinny Smith. She called the number and told Beverly that her husband had made another stop on his journey.

Message in a bottle: Judi Sidney found Gordon Smith's ashes on the Florida beach in front of her resort

'Judi called the wife in Tennessee, who was excited to know of Gordon's travels! Judi added her note,' the resort posted on its Facebook page.

'We put him in a rum bottle (you know, added a little fun to his trip) with the three notes. We added another $1 in case Gordon travels far and a long distance call is needed.'

Sidney and her husband threw a beach party for Skinny, passing around the letter for everyone present to sign, then the couple drove to Seven Mile Bridge and threw the bottle into the water.

And most recently, Gordon's ashes were was found in Key Colony Beach in Florida, having traveled 80 miles since his journey began.

Interesting find: The first person to find Gordon Smith's ashes was Ross, who found the bottle washed up on the beach, then added a note of his own and sent Gordon on his way again

Beverly and Gordon Smith took their last trip together in March 2012. Two hours after their return from Costa Rica, Gordon Smith died of a brain hemorrhage.

The couple had been married for 27 years when Gordon Smith died suddenly, leaving Beverly to ponder a future without her travel-loving husband.

Gordon Scott Smith was a big man with an even bigger personality. Once, the construction worker playfully took umbrage at a colleague nicknaming him 'Fatty', so Smith became 'Skinny'. The name was so entrenched that even his paychecks were made out to Skinny Smith.

'I don't think his bosses knew his real name,' says Beverly Smith told USA Today.

After Gordon was cremated, Beverly Smith placed the ashes, a message explaining that her husband Gordon 'Skinny' Smith loved to travel, and requesting that anyone who came across his ashes call her and let her know where her husband was, and two $1 bills to pay for the calls into a plastic bottle.

Upgrade: Judi Sidney transferred Gordon Smith's ashes, the two notes and the cash to a new bottle and added a note of her own and another $1 before Gordon took to the seas again

She took the bottle to Big Pine Key in Florida, a place the couple had visited on holiday every February since the early '80s and hurled it out into the sea, three weeks after her husband's death.

'We'd blow in and everybody would have a good time,' Beverly told USA Today, describing how Gordon Smith had earned the nickname 'Tennessee Tornado' and shared his moonshine among the other campers at Big Pine Key campsite.

But while Beverly is still dealing with the grief of losing her husband every day, hearing of his adventures from people whose hearts he has touched, even in death, helps her cope.

'I've had a rough time losing my best friend,' she told USA Today.

'You can't change it but you can lift your head up and be thankful… that people can still appreciate love stories - real love stories.'

Journeyman: The bottle containing Gordon Smith's ashes was thrown into the sea at Big Pine Key (A). It was found by Ross at Islamorada (B), then again by Judi Sidney (C)