Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

What is the strangest coincidence you’ve had?

233 replies

Yoloohno · 07/03/2023 23:29

Mine was I met someone on holiday in place A and had conversations several times during the week.

Fast forward 6 months and I got talking to someone on another holiday in place b and thought I know them but wasn’t sure where from, but not from that holiday or home but it turns out it was from holiday A.

OP posts:
Lovegossip · 08/03/2023 14:04

It might not be a big coincidence but dh and I grew up 12 miles apart (within South London) but somehow managed to get a job near where he lived working with my immediate next door neighbour from my childhood home, we discovered this as they are friends on Facebook and I was like "how u know them" etc

DH now works for a charity that takes in people in need of somewhere to live and work and one of the people that lives there is a classmate from his secondary school

Longwhiskers · 08/03/2023 14:06

I haven’t had many but my parents were once on holiday in Oman, on a mountain top. One other person admiring the view - it was my sister’s music teacher who taught her 30 yrs prior when they lived in west Africa. They hadn’t seen him since the day they left that country. Decades on there he was on the mountain in Oman. He was on holiday too. Things like that boggle my mind!

Itstheway · 08/03/2023 14:08

Met my now husband whilst on a girls holiday in Spain, he lived 300 miles from me back then. A couple of months later met his best friends and turns out one of his best friends lived down the road from me down south and his gf went to my school! What are the chances

SinnerBoy · 08/03/2023 14:10

99problemsincludinghavingteenagedaughters · Today 13:55

I love mine and have told on here before.

Well, that's proper lovely, I've got a lump in my throat.

Idratherbepaddleboarding · 08/03/2023 14:11

One of my best friends’ and I were born one day apart and our children (her oldest, my only) were also born one day apart.

99problemsincludinghavingteenagedaughters · 08/03/2023 14:18

Another number one which I think is quite cool and probably very identifying is that all of my DC have the same number in the birthdates..

For example 3rd, 13th, 23rd…

DH’s mum and my own DM’s also have the same birthday and were born exactly 10 years apart.

GrumpySausage · 08/03/2023 14:20

shieldmaiden7 · 07/03/2023 23:52

When I met my exdh the car he had originally belonged to his dad and it was the car he had when exdh was a little boy. When I had my DS1 he was driven home from hospital in that car. The car was on its last legs after a while so we sold it to a friend for them to do one big journey in it then the plan was to scrap it. Fast forward 18 years, we move 50 + miles from hometown. DS1 is out doing some urban exploring with some friends and stumbles across a number plate in a field hedge. He brings it home and nails it into his wall. He visits his dad for the weekend, they were talking about the cars they had growing up and exdh talks about the license plate number of the car he had when DS1 was a baby and the memories he had going on holiday in it as a kid. Turns out the number plate DS1 found in the middle of know where, 18 years later was the plate to the car his dad had to drive him home from hospital.

Wow!

glasshole · 08/03/2023 14:21

Mine is a bit king winded.

I was involved in a very male heavy hobby and I'd made a friend in America. He worked for an airline and offered me a free return flight to attend a big hobby related Conference with his family in America. I said yes.

The week before I was going, a local friend that had moved to our sleepy little town from a very rough country (6 years ago, in the southern hemisphere ) mentioned that his family were very worried as one of the boys he'd grown up with had gone AWOL while out on a remote natural world type work job , scouting finding sites for a tv programme. I made sympathetic noises and hoped he would be found.

Finalising plans with my American friends that night and he was talking about when he had visited the country where the missing man was from. I mentioned his name and American friend went " missing? No, he's in Xxx hospital in XXX country, he was attacked by an anteater and it almost tore his thumb off. Happened a few days ago. ". I was dumbfounded. He said he was 100% sure as the missing man wars actually staying in the hotel room next to mine at the conference and I would be meeting him the following week.

Long story short, I told the friend, who passed it in to the family and apparently a few hours after arriving at the hospital a storm had taken it the phone lines and so he hadn't informed his family ( which wasn't unusual for him ).

4 people from across the world all had People in common. Crazy!

NotMyDayJob · 08/03/2023 14:25

Two house buying related ones.

Years ago we were looking to move back to the area I am from in London and viewed many houses in and around the locale. Viewed lovely house and met owners and really liked it, but for a couple of reasons not the right house for us. Owners told us they would be moving completely out of area, to a county beyond the home counties. We went on to buy other house, in nearby but not quite the same area. When we moved we eventually, after about a year, sold some furniture, including a table, on Facebook market place. Who should show up to buy the table but the owner of the house we had viewed.

More recently, we have completely relocated to an area in the North East and looking to move. Started viewing houses recently, went to see one house, shown round by owners, general chat about them and why they are moving and they mentioned one of their children had moved to London. I asked where (as Londoners tend to do) and they revealed it was to the small not very well know part of London I am from, and not only that but the next street over from where I grew up and lived for nearly all my life. Didn't buy that house either but hopefully the weird coincidence means the right one is on the horizon!

VeronicaBeccabunga · 08/03/2023 14:26

Joined the gym, I go at the same time each week so was soon saying 'hello' to other regulars.
My husband also joined up. One morning I chatted to one of these regular guys and he mentioned he'd spent the weekend taking part in a particular sport, which my husband also competes in.
Went and found my husband and introduced them as sharing this interest.
Turns out they knew one another from childhood, their parents were friends, all attending the same club for this sport, over a hundred miles away from where we now live.

Gingernaut · 08/03/2023 14:27

Not a coincidence, but very strange

When the doctor's receptionist asks for my date of birth, they start addressing me by name

Turns out, I'm their only patient with my date of birth

In a practice that has hundreds, possibly thousands of registered patients, I'm the only one

watcherintherye · 08/03/2023 14:29

Dh’s birthday is the day after my Mum’s and my birthday is the day after his Mum’s!

MrsWojadobakowsky · 08/03/2023 14:29

I had a friend at school that I never saw during holidays.

Every year during (secondary) school holidays my Mother bought me a new winter coat which I chose myself, it wasn't obligatory to have any set colour or style of coat. Everyone wore their new coat on the first day back.

For several years in a row I would arrive on the first morning of winter term to see my friend wearing an identical coat to mine, even though I did my best to choose something I thought she would hate.

Ariela · 08/03/2023 15:47

RosesAndHellebores · 08/03/2023 00:19

I once had a job where three of us in a team.of 20 had the same birthday.

There are others but very outing.

I worked in a company where out of 11 people SEVEN of us had our birthdays in the same week (actually 6 days).

Ariela · 08/03/2023 15:49

watcherintherye · 08/03/2023 14:29

Dh’s birthday is the day after my Mum’s and my birthday is the day after his Mum’s!

I once had a boyfriend whose mum's birthday was the same day as my mum's which was also the same day as his best friend from school's mum's birthday AND my best friend from school's dad's birthday.

longtompot · 08/03/2023 16:03

When my daughter was at secondary school she had a friend who lived in the house my friend lived in when we were at the same school. They also had the same surname, this was her maiden name. I only found out when we went to pick her up after a party.

longtompot · 08/03/2023 16:05

I also have another friend whose birthday is exactly two weeks away from mine. Our husbands birthdays are also exactly two weeks apart!

Dillydallydilly · 08/03/2023 16:10

Saucepots · 08/03/2023 00:21

My dad was a hobby artist - he liked sketching beautiful views and dabbling in watercolours.

When he died, having never expressed a view or preference about burial or cremation, mum and I had to go with our feelings and work out what to do about the funeral. We decided on burial in a newly created eco-burial ground, and found a lovely spot for him in front of a duck pond with a beautiful view of the South Downs.

A few weeks later, flicking through his sketch books, we found a completely beautiful 20 year old sketch of the duck pond and that perfect view of the South Downs, made from the exact spot we chose to bury him in.

He’d thought that view beautiful enough to spend an afternoon sketching. It was the right place for him to end up.

This is wonderful @Saucepots

FluffingtonMuffington · 08/03/2023 16:15

I worked for a diving school in Greece when I was 19, and shared an apartment with an older colleague / friend of mine.

Years later my sister went to live in Barbados, she wasn't diving, but he was and was living there, and they ended up in a relationship.

FluffingtonMuffington · 08/03/2023 16:17

Another one, was at a festival, in a crowd of thousands (stevie wonder was playing) and I turned to my right and my brother was stood next to me. Didn't even know he was going!

Dinosauratemydaffodils · 08/03/2023 16:23

My dad's cousin (born and raised in Malta) and my mum's brother (born and raised in Yorkshire) ended up sat next to each other in a hotel bar in Rome. They had never met but as part of the conversation realised that they were connected when she (the cousin) asked about his accent and then said "oh one of my cousin's married someone from there, he met her whilst stationed near by". Jokingly my uncle said "don't suppose his name is Dinosauratemydaffodilsdad"...not expecting the answer would be "actually yes". They called my parents who were equally surprised.

New colleague of mine in my previous job turned to have gone to the same British Forces School abroad as me. It was a small school and only for a specific branch of the military.

Meyou23 · 08/03/2023 16:37

I speak a minority language (don‘t want to say which in case outing). I googled it plus mumsnet. There is one thread about it. The OP speaks this language, and is from the same village as me (population 1000). She now lives in England- in the same town my husband is from. From the small amount of information she gave (about names, plus her username), I know exactly who she is.

ResignationUpYourArse · 08/03/2023 16:39

We purchased our house over a year ago, it had beautiful parquet flooring done to an exceptionally high standard. We found out from one of the neighbours that the guy who laid the flooring over 50 years ago was an actual floor fitter.

My heel scratched the floor and we wanted it repairing, so rang a guy off checkatrade who was based about 45 miles away but had the best reviews.

He asked for our address and when we gave it him, he went really quite and said "I can't quite believe this, that's my grandads house who passed away a few years ago. I grew up in that house!"

His grandad laid the floor in our hallway, but also taught his grandson the trade!

hookiewookie29 · 08/03/2023 16:51

I'm a Childminder . Several years ago a family came to me for childcare. Turned out they lived in my old house that I'd left 20 years before. Apparently it still had the same kitchen in!

SomePeopleAreJustBloodyStupid · 08/03/2023 17:04

I was in a hospital 70 miles away from where I live, waiting for an x-ray. My name was called, and another woman stood up at the same time as me. Our surname is unusual, but she had the same first name as well.