. >> reporter: and each written to 21-year-old james prosser. the young man from wales died fighting in afghanistan last year. the letters told of james's courage and his family's pain trying to go on without him. >> james's mother, in one of her letters, she remarks about how it is each of our rights and responsibility to try and make this world a better place. and we were almost in tears reading these letters. and we wrote her back a letter. and we were trying to convey, you know, how we were trying to make a difference down there in the gulf. >> for me, it was just writing down my feelings about james and just, i don't know, hoping in some way that he'd see them, hear them. >> reporter: sara adams wrote those words about her son last christmas. >> he was just thoughtful, you know, he was just kind. >> reporter: unable to face the holiday without james, the family went to barbados but could not escape their grief. they put their letters in that sambuca bottle, sealed it and cast it in the ocean. it traveled 1,300 miles. >> greetings from horn