'Be excellent to yourself, dude': Message in a bottle from girl thrown into water 11 years ago is washed up in Sandy debris and returned to overjoyed mother two years after daughter's death

Sidonie Fery's note referenced the film Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

She died in 2010 at the age of 18 when she fell from a cliff in Switzerland

Twelve years after launching the bottle, it was found on a Long Island beach

Workers called the number in the message and reached her mother Mimi



A message in a bottle written by a ten-year-old girl washed up on a beach in the wake of Superstorm Sandy - two years after her death at the age of 18.

Sidonie Fery and her friend tossed the ginger ale bottle containing a reference to Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure into the water off Long Island eleven years ago.

Workers in the village of Patchogue, only a mile or two away from where they launched the bottle, called the New York City phone number on the note.



They reached her grieving mother Mimi, whose daughter had died in a fall from a cliff in 2010.

A message in a bottle written by ten-year-old Sidonie Fery washed up on a Long Island beach in the wake of Superstorm Sandy - two years after her death at the age of 18

The note in the bottle, left, contained a New York City phone number. The workers in Patchogue, Long Island, who found it left a message and three hours later, Sidonie's mother Mimi, right, called them back in tears



'I was just sobbing when I heard they had found it,' Ms Fery said.

'These are very, very kind people.'



The note read: 'Be excellent to yourself, dude' - a reference to Sidonie's favorite film, which starred Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter as the time-traveling school friends.



When Ms Fery heard what the note said, she said she knew instantly that it had been written by her daughter.

She also said it had a second meaning to her, that she should not worry about Sidonie who died in Switzerland while attending boarding school.

'It makes so much sense.'



Ms Fery described her daughter, an only child, a creative youngster who always wrote poetry.

Sidonie was a 'very artistic and vivacious young woman' with an independent streak, who had traveled alone to visit relatives in Iran every summer from the age of seven.

Born on September 11, 1991, the little girl was often teased and harassed after the 9/11 terror attacks on her tenth birthday by people who didn't understand her Persian heritage.

'She had to deal with a lot of things,' Ms Fery said.



'But she stood her ground.'



This weekend, Ms Fery will attend a ceremony in Patchogue to thank the workers who returned the bottle to her and dedicate a small plaque to Sidonie.

The bottle was found just before Thanksgiving last year among broken docks and boating gear.

Brian Waldron, a Patchogue parks department employee for 23 years, said one of the temporary workers hired to help with the Sandy clean-up found the message in a bottle.

Sidonie's message referenced her favorite film - Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, which starred Keanu Reeves as Bill, right, and Alex Winter as Ted, left

'We opened it and it had a phone number inside, so I called the number and left a message,' he said.

More than three hours later, a tearful and overjoyed Ms Fery called back.



They quickly arranged a meeting in Patchogue so he could hand over the bottle.



'I told her I felt like her daughter was looking down from heaven and wanted me to give her a call,' said Mr Waldron.

He also collected a second bottle filled with sand from where the ginger ale bottle was found and gave it to Ms Fery.