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Coincidences

(96 Posts)
BlueSapphire Thu 04-Jul-19 09:14:31

I have just had the weirdest experience. Still on the ship, but waiting to disembark.
At breakfast sat next to a couple I hadn't met before on board and found out we came from the same town. Not only that but the husband had worked in the area where DH and I lived. Turns out that he was my GP of over 40 years ago and had seen me through my first successful pregnancy!
Any one else had something like that happen?

Hattiehelga Fri 05-Jul-19 12:25:03

I showed a photo to my Hairdresser of my ~Son's newly acquired Cockapoo and she showed me a photo of one her friend had just had. "Gosh, could be twins" we said. Turns out her friend and my Son collected their puppies on the same day at the same time from the same Breeder and yes, they have the same father so are half siblings !

GreenGran78 Fri 05-Jul-19 12:31:06

The weirdest thing happened to some friends of mine. Three generations of them were emigrating en masse to new Zealand. The teenage granddaughter was very unhappy about it. One day she was on an online chat room, (or whatever they call them!). A girl came on, and she asked where she lived. "New Zealand." "Oh, we are emigrating there soon. Which town do you live in?" "A small town called D.........." "Oh! That's where we are going to live!"
Not only an amazing co-incidence, but they were both the same age, and would attend the same school.
Needless to say, she couldn't wait to emigrate, then, and meet her new friend. Her Granny was convinced that it was Divine Intervention, and who would argue with that?

Hazeld Fri 05-Jul-19 12:34:37

My daughter was at the bus stop on her way to work when the chap next to her who she had never met in her life before said to her 'Did you live with your mom in ..... Rd when you were little? You're the spitting image of your mother. ' Turned out he was our milkman and he recognised her because she looks like me.

Marieeliz Fri 05-Jul-19 12:35:32

We got friendly with a couple from London on a 3 week walking holiday in Canada. 5 years later we were waiting in a line to board a boat to the Scilly Isles and they were a few steps behind us. We obviously like the same kind of holidays.

gilld69 Fri 05-Jul-19 12:40:41

Met my Dh on s night out only to fimd out we lived on the same street and had never seen each otjer needless to say we shared a cab home

cc Fri 05-Jul-19 12:44:40

I was in Kashmir in the early 80's with my husband, staying on a houseboat. Two young Australians arrived late on Christmas eve and we got into conversation over supper. They were living about a hundred yards from us in London.

Dee1012 Fri 05-Jul-19 12:50:38

I was in labour with my son and my mum arrived....she began talking to the midwife and it turned out that I was the second baby she'd delivered 21 years earlier!

grannybuy Fri 05-Jul-19 12:55:40

Some years ago, while travelling from East to West in Florida, we stopped half way in a very pretty small town. We noticed that it was twinned with a Scottish town, though not ours in NE Scotland, but only about 70 miles away. A few years later, while at his local bowling green DH got talking to an American visitor. When DH asked where he came from, he named that lovely town in Florida, saying that DH would never have heard of it. He was very surprised indeed to discover that we had explored and had lunch there.

Buffybee Fri 05-Jul-19 12:58:57

It's a small World......
While walking on a headland path with my friend who I was visiting in Australia, a family were walking towards us from the opposite direction.
They asked us where the path lead to and my friend was just about to explain, when we spotted a turtle in the water below and as we were all watching it, I asked the oldest couple if they were on holiday, he laughed and said that they had lived in Australia for over 25 years but he had kept his strong accent and they were originally from Gozo.
I said that my Daughter in laws family live there and he asked me her name. He knew her Father who had left the Island for London many years before and her Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles still living there.
He gave me his name and asked me to take a photo to give to my Dil to show her family the next time she went to Gozo.

Llamedos13 Fri 05-Jul-19 12:59:53

I live in Ontario and my sister who lives in Edinburgh was visiting. We were sitting on my local beach when a man nearby who heard our accents came over to chat. His business was erecting ice skating rinks in the UK and turned he had hired my sisters son and girlfriend the previous winter to help out.We could not get over it, what were the chances of that encounter!

Lancslass1 Fri 05-Jul-19 13:04:13

I was standing in a queue in a small post office in Cheshire.
The lady in front of me was sending a parcel to Canada for her grandchildren.
I spoke to her and said that my son and family were in Canada and it transpired that both families lived in the same small town in British Columbia.
I mentioned the name of the family to my grandchildren and coincidentally one of the daughters was in the same class as my elder grandson.
The other people waiting in the queue were fascinated by the coincidence as were we.

grannybuy Fri 05-Jul-19 13:07:41

When I was in my fifties, a new younger teacher came to visit prior to taking up post. After chatting to her for a few minutes I had to ask if her mum was a twin, as she looked and spoke so like twin girls who had been in my class when at primary school, but hadn't seen for over forty years. She replied that she was. I asked P. . or P . .? She confirmed which one, and was amazed that I could have worked that out after five minutes, particularly as everyone told her that she looked like her dad!

Edithb Fri 05-Jul-19 13:13:02

I bought a necklace from eBay and had to send money to a house 250 miles away. I realised the lady was the neighbour of my husband’s aunt and she had arranged a birthday party for her, so I had a photograph of her!

Amagran Fri 05-Jul-19 13:15:33

About 10 years ago DH had a new work colleague. Over a period of 2 years or so I kept hearing him talk about 'Jane Doe' this, Jane Doe that, Jane Doe the other etc. Then one day at a social event, I found myself chatting with Jane Doe and we soon recognised each other - we had been in the same class at school. We were all living and working well away from our home town.

gillyknits Fri 05-Jul-19 13:34:28

Forty nine years ago my DH and I were on our honeymoon in S.Spain at a very remote resort. We were sitting by the pool, during our second week and there sitting next to us was a childhood friend of my DH. She recognised his voice. We have been friends ever since!

Juliet27 Fri 05-Jul-19 13:50:43

Walking through a shopping centre in Australia on holiday I bumped into a woman who had rented the house next door to us for a while here in UK.

On holiday in Corfu we found a couple also on holiday who had stayed in the same hotel as us in Austria two years earlier.

An aunt was on the same flight from Majorca and we had no idea she too was on holiday.

Day6 Fri 05-Jul-19 13:59:38

We were house-hunting in a completely new area several years ago and arranged to see a house we liked the look of.

The estate agent showed us around. The owner was sitting in the garden reading. She turned around when she heard OH's voice. "Hello Mr - she said. I thought it was you!" She was the solicitor OH had always used and the week before she'd drawn up our will for us! She made us tea, which was a bonus on a house viewing. smile

(We didn't buy her house. It wasn't quite right for us.)

Tigertooth Fri 05-Jul-19 14:05:50

Slightly different but I worked with a girl in a small shop (there were only 5 of us so I knew her well) for 2 years whilst at uni.
At the Xmas party at the end of the second year I found out she was my cousin. Our dads we’re brothers but my uncle hadn’t seen her since she was 2!

sandelf Fri 05-Jul-19 14:16:24

Oh yes!! Plane to holiday isle - thought another passenger looked like my GP from 20 years back. Disembarking, discovered it was her. She invited us round to her apartment- (just retired) good amount of banana liqueur consumed and it all came out - the frustrations of being a GP, advising idiots how to avoid XYZ - they don't take the advice and keep reappearing with 'XYZ'. It was really lovely to see her in a human context. - But of course amusing too.

Neilspurgeon0 Fri 05-Jul-19 14:35:48

Years ago I was invited by a senior woman at the college in London where I worked, to go to Arizona to talk about some work I had been doing, at a conference. When we got on the plane, her husband was a lad I had been at school with thirty miles away, thirty five years earlier, who was in the same class as myself from 11 until 16. Coincidences are more common than we give them credit for, the world is actually quite small in surprising ways.

BassGrammy Fri 05-Jul-19 14:45:46

We went on a cruise a few years ago, and all the paperwork we had was for Judith (not my name) then my surname. I tried to put it right but I still kept getting stuff for Judith. All went ok and we boarded the ship. Had dinner the first evening and sat with a couple we didn’t know. Got chatting, and she said I wish they could get my name right, It’s Judith, not Jenny (same surname). Now it’s not a particularly common name, so I think the chances of that happening were very small!

BlueSapphire Fri 05-Jul-19 15:03:44

Just thought of another one. When we lived in Singapore we were friendly with another couple, also from the UK. Back in the UK a couple of years later we were on holiday in Cornwall, and sitting in a little tea room on the Lizard one afternoon and noticed another couple looking at us. They eventually asked if we were M and M; turned out it was that couple!

And another. At dinner with friends in Cyprus and was introduced to a dinner guest and her baby daughter who were staying with them. Back in the UK about 3 years later, and on holiday in a remote campsite at St David's in West Wales. I went to the toilet block at midnight and who should come out of one of the loos but this dinner guest!

Also a colleague of my husband's in Singapore we used to have drinks with; they had just had a baby boy. Back in the UK again, and started my teaching job. Turned out said baby, now 5, was a pupil at my school and the family lived in the road at the back of us. I ended up teaching their daughter.

Miep1 Fri 05-Jul-19 15:14:08

We met our postman on a day trip we took whilst in Spain!

Penygirl Fri 05-Jul-19 15:23:13

We were travelling on the tube after seeing a show in the west end when we bumped into my nephew who was in London with friends for a football match. Both over 200 miles from home and only travelling on the same bit of the underground for three stops!

oodles Fri 05-Jul-19 15:28:20

odd coincidence this week. I live nearly 200miles away from Mum, it's where I grew up. Back in around February I went for the first time on a bus to a new place, never been on the bus before, a lady came and sat next to me and started talking to me, mainly about how her psychiatric treatment was going, anyway she got off and I stayed on the bus. She didn't live anywhere near my mum
Anyway back up here this week and I went for the first time ever to the new cinema, hadn't been to the cinema there for maybe 30 years
As I was worried about the buses as it was sunday I got there early and was the first person there so sat in what seemed to be the optimum place for my eyesight, just as the film was about to start someone came and sat beside me, and started telling me about her bariatric surgery a few months ago and her psychiatric problems. Then she said I know you don't I, yes it was same laday I'd met on the bus. Well, not sure she enjoyed the film as much as I did, she snoozed off halfway, but woke up enough at the end and went off to find her bus. How incredibly random.