Have you ever had a random encounter that you still think about?!

[TeethKicked]

Years ago dh and I were driving through country lanes in deepest darkest Oxfordshire ( insofar as Oxfordshire can ever be deep and dark!) But we didn’t know where we were, and I wouldn’t have the first clue how to get back there again.

A car coming the other way (the only car we’d seen in a while) drew level and stopped. The woman driving it told us she was a registrar and couldn’t find the wedding party and asked if we had seen them.

We apologised and said no, we hadn’t seen anyone at all, and off we all drove. I’ve often wondered:

A) Did she mean that the wedding party were also driving around the lanes of deepest darkest Oxfordshire?

B) Did she mean that she was lost and couldn’t find the wedding venue?

C) Did she mean that the bride, groom and guests hadn’t shown up so she was out hunting them down?!

D) Did she ever find who she was looking for, or was there a bride and groom somewhere waiting and wondering, and did they ever get married?!

All this wondering from a two minute encounter! Anyone else?!

I'm not woo at all but I once felt a strangely powerful magnetic attraction to a man in a car who drove past me once when my baby and I were sitting on a bench by the wayside waiting to surprise my husband as he drove home from work. I can still picture the silhouette of this man as he drove past. It was such a weird momentary attraction I felt for this complete stranger, I really was struck by it. This was about 25 years ago, I am still happily married to my dh, but I do also still remember that fleeting moment.

@Beefilm, I had that happen once. It was a very long time ago and I was in my early 20s. Standing outside a cafe in France on a rainy morning and a car was stopped for the lights. I had fleeting but intense eye contact with the young man driving it. He was gorgeous and still comes to mind occasionally.

These are fascinating, thanks for sharing. I wonder if there are people out there who are telling stories about random encounters with us! I hope so, it’s a nice thought.

@GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal when did your cousin get married?!

As a young and romantic woman, a handsome, dark-haired young man tried to start a conversation with me at the Bronte Parsonage Museum. I blushed furiously and scuttled away. I've often wondered if he was my Heathcliff. If so, I'm glad I scuttled away!

I had a massive crush on a guy that would come into the shop that I worked in, I was quite young (18/19) and I'd go bright red at the sight of him. My Co worker would take the piss out of me, but I couldn't control it. At the time he had everything I liked in a person. I just couldn't stop my feelings for him. On a night out I bumped into him and his friends, I was pretty drunk and don't remember much about it. I'm pretty sure we chatted for a while. That was that really. I never saw him again the shop. Maybe I had left the shop job by then. Then one day I was walking around town and we bumped into each other. We got chatting and it's really nice and easy. I obviously wasn't a dick head when I saw him that time drunk. He then goes on to say he's moving back to his home town. This was before mobiles, Internet etc. I often wonder if things might have been different. He was so beautiful and I was so attracted to him. I still get a little flutter thinking about him.

I suppose mine isn't that random but I sometimes think about it.

I also have a Digbeth coach station one. When my grandmother died I travelled down for the funeral and got stuck there (there had been a accident so the coaches weren't getting through), and ended up talking for a couple of hours to a man who was travelling in the opposite direction to visit his sick grandmother. Anyhoo, our coaches came and we both went our separate ways, but I've always wondered what happened with his gran.

Tyrone, if you out there, do send me an update!

Was my 16th and I went out on the town with some sort of friends, older girls from my Saturday job. We went to a nightclub and they were keen to get me taking ecstasy, I was terrified! I kept saying I'd think about it, then I got talking to a lad about my age. I told him the situation and he said he'd help me escape. We went outside and tried to get a taxi but there were none (before mobile phones) so he walked me two miles home! He didn't try it on or do anything inappropriate he was a perfect gent. Looking back I was probably silly leaving with a stranger but in my eyes then it was the better option. I have often wondered who he was.

I was overseas around 10 years ago. I was walking along a beach when I met a man who was fishing on the shore line. We chatted and he told me he was just passing through and was going up country the next morning to look for work. I often wonder if he ever got to where he was going and what work he did. He seemed like life had been a struggle for him so I hope he found happiness.

In my late teens, walking home from a friend's house across Clapham Common in London, alone, late at night - this would have been early 70s. A man caught up with me and said "I seem to have found myself following you - rather a sinister word." I was flummoxed, said something like "Oh, don't worry!" and carried on walking. He didn't speak to me again, I think he changed direction, I got home safely. I must have felt invulnerable, of course I wasn't.

When I was 20 ish I was walking down a street in NYC. I was sharing a flat with someone who was a fashion student and she picked out some clothes for me (from her wardrobe) to wear. It was an outrageously brightly patterned skater dress and fuscia tights. I felt amazing and like someone completely different. A woman (random stranger) stopped me in the street and told me I looked amazing and then walked on. It still makes me smile to think of (decades later).

Almost thirty years ago I was in the process of divorce proceedings. It was my decision but naturally I felt really down about it all. My friends decided to take me for drinks and a meal to lift my spirits. I was really grateful for their kindness but just wasn't feeling it. At one point during their chatter I got that feeling....when you know someone is looking at you. I looked up and a man at the bar smiled at me. He came over and asked me if I was ok....he thought I looked very sad. I briefly told him why....not something I'm in the habit of....telling strangers my business but there was something about him. He said he had to go as he was with work colleagues and was leaving in two days. He suddenly said....meet me tomorrow night at eight...under the clock at the beachfront. I'll wait but if you don't come I'll understand. It's sounds so cheesy now but at that time I just thought why not. Nowadays i'd definitely be googling and thinking of all the dangers.
All the next day I tried to talk myself out of going but then I just said to myself...go...what's the harm...it's a public place etc.
He was waiting under the clock Iike he said. We went for a walk around the harbour and then went down on to the beach. We sat for hours and discussed live, love and the universe. It was well after midnight when I was leaving and he gave me the most beautiful hug and wished me a happy life. He was going back to his home town the next day so I never seen him again.
I often think of him....especially after some shitty encounters with less than suitable men....and I silently thank him for reminding me that there are decent , kind people in this world .

I was visiting Sheffield uni with my dd and were staying the night. We went out looking for somewhere to eat and came across this Chinese restaurant. But it was in a residential house, we appeared to be sat in the dining room. Only saw one member of staff and no other customers arrived although the doorbell seemed to ring for collections.
My daughter did study there and never found this place again and both of wonder sometimes if we imagined it! 🤣

I was in Bath with my partner and four children. We stopped at the Wild Cafe. We shared a table with a retired lady who used to work in Switzerland and other countries. She was so fascinating, and I regret not asking her for her number so I could invite her for a coffee.

I was working as a Practice Nurse in a GP surgery and was about 6-months pregnant with my twins. One day, a patient came in for her appointment ~ what for I honestly can't remember now? Anyhow, she commented on my very pregnant tummy and I must have mentioned that I had chosen not to find out the genders of my babies and instead wanted a surprise. This lovely lady then started to tell me that she could tell me the sex of my babies if I allowed her to do the ring test on me. She said she had done it many times and had never been wrong. I knew that it wasn't a science and was just a bit of fun so, as I was intrigued, I agreed to give it a go. Hence our roles reversed and I the nurse, ended up laying on the patient's couch, with my patient dangling one of my rings from a chain over my pregnant tummy. (Good job nobody walked in ha, ha!) One of my babies was quite a lot bigger than the other and she was able to tell me quite confidently that the baby was a boy. She then proceeded to tell me that my very small baby was definitely a girl. I really couldn't believe it as I was convinced the small baby was a boy and I thought if anything, I was carrying two boys. I took it for what it was, a bit of fun. Imagine my surprise upon the birth, to find out that she had got the sex right for both babies!! I never went back to my practise nurse job after my maternity leave so I never ever saw her again. It really was a one-off encounter. But the thought of it makes me smile and I have often thought about her many times over the years. I wonder if she thinks about that pregnant nurse and wondered if she got it right..?

I was a very shy, plain, sheltered, young teenager. One day Dad was driving through South London and we stopped at some traffic lights near the Walworth Rd (very busy street market in Southwark). A boy about my age was standing on top of a pile of palettes shouting instructions to a group of mates standing around him. He was incredibly good looking in a seventies sort of a way, denim jacket and flares, long hair, blue eyes - the sort of person I would never in a million years have been allowed to talk to. He looked up, caught my eye and gave me a dazzling smile and I fell in love on the spot. I can picture him to this day.

When I was in my 20s and not so plain I ran a small kiosk in Liverpool St station. It was quite a tight community of little shops and train staff and I knew most people by sight including a lot of regular customers and commuters. One day a man I'd never seen before walked up to the counter and gave me a bunch of tulips saying 'I think you are beautiful' and walked off. I never saw him again but tulips are still my favourite flower.

I've namechanged for this as my family/friends all know this story.

Although we have Irish families DH and I live in the U.K. and always have. One day DH happened to be on Facebook and got a friend request from a lady who used to babysit him over 40 years before. He accepted it, they said Hi and exchanged info. She had moved back to SW Ireland many years before. DH logged out of FB and that was that.

A week later DS1 started uni in Dublin. On his first day there, feeling very lost and isolated, he was walking down Grafton St when a stranger approached him and asked was he Mr DUbCo's son - it was the old babysitter who had come up to Dublin for a days shopping and recognised DS because he looks so like his dad did as a teen.

Later that same day he passed a couple who stopped him and knew his name. It was my cousin and her husband who had met him about 5 years before at a christening. They ended up being a great support to him while he was there.

I have an Old English Sheepdog. I met a puppy in the park today, which came from the same breeder and had the same name as mine.

Early 00s and I was working away from home for the first time. I was quiet and didn't really have lots of friends in the new city - just sort of kept to myself.
One day a woman came up to me with a card and told me one of her colleagues had been desperately in love with me for 6 months and had never had the guts to speak to me or get my number he was leaving to work in Europe could I sign his leaving card? Thoroughly bemused (actually dying of embarrassment) I signed it with a silly message and she went away. To this day I have no idea who it was, whether he got the card or not and what he made of it all. I occasionally wonder how he got on in Europe and why he didn't just talk to me!

I grew up in Ireland but live in the US now. I took a seminar at our local university taught by one of the more senior professors - probably in his 70s. When he heard I was from Ireland he said that he had only been there once back in the 1970s for a conference and he and his friend took a bus from dublin to sligo to see Yeats country. On the bus they got chatting to a man who was really friendly and and when they arrived he took them around all the sights and out for dinner with his wife that evening. He was actually an ex Priest. I said "was his name Seamus O Murcu" . Yes he said. Seamus was a close friend of my parents and I knew him well (and had a slight crush on him as a teenager even though he was 40 years older than me - really charasmatic man).

I was about to cross the road an immaculately dressed old lady was at the other side and sort of gasped and started pointing in my direction. I was obviously confused, looked behind me to see what she was gesturing at, and then when I looked back she sort of huffed and threw her hands up in the air and started crossing the road, and I did too.

When we met in the middle she said "You!", and pointed right in my face, "Are beautiful. Beautiful!"

Weird as anything but a compliment thats stick with me

The strangest one I remember is when we were on holiday in France. We were driving through a rural area, middle of nowhere, when we saw an elderly lady walking slowly. She stopped us and asked (in French) if there was a pond anywhere nearby. We didn’t know (there is actually, we worked out later) said sorry and went on. She was walking slowly, with a stick, and nowhere near any houses. I wondered if we should have offered her a lift, but the car was rammed - kids in car seats and luggage for two weeks holiday - and she would hardly have fitted.
She looked quite affluent - well dressed and lots of jewellery - but I can’t work out how she got there or what she was doing!
Perhaps she was a ghost.

Mine happened on a crowded London Underground train about 30 years ago. I've never felt anything like it before or since, and what was amazing was it had hit him as well. We were sitting diagonally opposite at either end of a carriage but there were so many people getting on I lost sight of him after about 30 seconds.

I was on holiday in the south of France with my fiancé and on the first day we saw who we thought was one of our best friends from home. He was sitting on the ground leaning against a wall and looking at his phone. I stopped in my tracks in complete shock, and tapped my fiancés arm pointing and stuttering that our friend was here when we had only seen him the previous day. He was even wearing the same T-shirt he had been wearing the day before. We went up to him to say hi but it was a confused French lad who didn't speak English and was wondering why we were talking to him. He was our friend's complete double, it was uncanny. I wish we had got a photo but I thought we had already scared the poor lad enough! We told our friend when we got home and we still mention it sometimes, but I don't think he realise
how much this man was his identical twin!

About thirty years ago when I was in my twenties I was walking down the Old Kent Road and a sprightly man I'd guess to be in his late sixties was walking towards me. Our eyes met as we passed and he had bright pale blue eyes. There was no physical attraction at all, but an electric jolt went down my spine, and it was actually shocking, like meeting eyes with someone I'd known really well in a previous life.

I've no idea if he felt anything similar, we carried on walking and that was it. But it was so vivid I still remember it.