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Original poster

What are the biggest coincidences that have happened in your life.

132 replies

Lardychops · 12/05/2025 18:27

So five years after being on a kibbutz in Israel I was a passenger in a car with a friend in Hendon. The car came to a sudden stop at a zebra crossing. A startled girl flicked a V sign before we both realised we knew each other from the kibbutz!!

That SAME day on my way home to Harlow I got in the train and quite literally sat down next to a lad that had been on the same Kibbutz!!! He and the girl were not connected in any way - It felt barmy at the time and I imagine the odds were millions to one!!!

DH sister married a man she met in France and at her wedding it turned out he and ones DH’s old university friends had been Penpals while at secondary school- I mean what are the chances??

Anyone else had any bizarre coincidences like this - or more so ??

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Gundogday · 14/05/2025 01:23

TheNightingalesStarling · 13/05/2025 11:51

As a teenager, I was a Brownie/Guide leader. My name was a bird.

This bird was my now DHs surname... so now my actual name.

Owl?

coxesorangepippin · 14/05/2025 01:29

I was in an ice cream shop and noticed the two women in front of me were wearing a certain brand of leggings (Lululemon)

About three weeks later, in a different town, the same two women were in front of me in a shoe shop, wearing the same damn leggings

Stirabout · 14/05/2025 01:34

Meeting my in-laws for the first time
Walked into a pub on the other side of the country to be handed my regular pint of Guinness with a smile and a “high stirabout how are you”. 🤣. My local barman had moved. My FIL was very impressed but I think MIL thought I must be an alcoholic 🤣🤣

Stirabout · 14/05/2025 01:39

This guy nearly burnt down part of our Uni. Long story. The fault fell on my best friend at the time and she hated him with a passion ever since.

I met the same guy in a completely different city at a party through a completely unconnected friend. So weird coincidence
We married two years later.

She didn’t smile much in the photos, even though she was my witness 🤣

Stirabout · 14/05/2025 01:41

Finally.

My kids are named after the last three Popes. We got there first though 😃

Lavenderandbrown · 14/05/2025 02:38

I was randomly assigned a numbered passcode in the late 90s (4 digits) and have used it ever since for banking and other things like my phone passcode. Turns out it is my now DH’s birthday and birth year and he’s been using his birthday as a 4 digit passcode for years also.

walking in Epcot exiting the shop in Germany and there are my cousins passing by.

enjoying the pool at a resort in Florida and there are my across the street neighbors on the other side

KateWithTheGoodHair · 14/05/2025 03:11

Love these! Several times in my life I have thought of someone randomly, then I see them moments later.

For instance, I’ll be walking down the street to grab something from the supermarket and a person will walk past me in the opposite direction and I’ll think, “oh that looked like some random person I was at school with 30 years ago who I’ve never thought about since” . Then i’ll step into Tesco and there is the actual person I haven’t seen for 30 years doing their weekly shop.

This has happened many many times.

lobeydosser · 14/05/2025 03:26

One day on the family summer holiday in Turkey we take the water taxi from the hotel across to the nearest town. Meandering through the market my DD is highly embarrassed to bump into one of her teachers😮
Meandering a bit more through the town, DH decides he needs a hair cut. Ignoring lots of other barbers closer to the waterfront, he settles on one in a back street. Waiting for him, we budge up to make room for a couple of locals. Turns out not only do they speak English but they run the dry cleaners a mile away from us in North London!

lobeydosser · 14/05/2025 03:29

Oh and there was the time in Prague in the mid 90s when we were having a row as we walked down one of the main streets. Who did we meet but one of his pals from football who was there on business....

Original poster
Lardychops · 14/05/2025 08:12

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 13/05/2025 11:48

Bumped into an old primary school friend of dh at a hotel in Nairobi when on our honeymoon. He was a zoologist studying elephants!

On separate occasions at Bahrain airport, bumped into a) father of a close friend, and b) adult dd of another close friend.

Wow - and what a cool job to boot!

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Original poster
Lardychops · 14/05/2025 08:14

imnotwhoyouthinkiam · 13/05/2025 23:03

Twice we've been on holiday (in the UK) and bumped into people from home. Once was DS' teacher which he was horrified by!

My mums best friend is my Godmother. She's also related to my dad, although I have no idea how, and was nothing to do with my parents meeting.

My best friend at secondary school and I had almost identical surnames. To the extent teachers used to get them wrong. And more than once we were accused of lying about which name was which. My DCs father (who i almost married) had that same surname. So the name I'd mistakenly been called hundreds of times nearly became my name.

Haha! X

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Original poster
Lardychops · 14/05/2025 08:17

MigGril · 13/05/2025 23:04

Went on Holiday in the UK when DD was a baby, in the swimming pool bumped into my Uncle and his family who live the other end of the country to us. We had a lovely meet up and meal out with them.

Neither of us new we where going on holiday or where it was just a happy coincidence.

Good job you were pleased to see them!!

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HairyToity · 14/05/2025 08:17

Met a friend at uni, and when I went to stay at her house (about two hours from where I live), and got chatting to her mum, it turned out me and my friend were second cousins. We were bridesmaids for each other and been life long friends. Still blows my mind to think my granny and her grandfather were siblings.

HairyToity · 14/05/2025 08:19

P.S. my granny was one of 9, so I probably have a lot of second cousins!

Original poster
Lardychops · 14/05/2025 08:19

Neverenoughbiscuits · 13/05/2025 23:15

I have two:

Once when I was travelling abroad for work. I was working in a very niche field at the time and the place was very remote - 9 hour bus ride from the plane. I went to check into my hotel and on the front desk was an old friend from school. She was working in that country and they'd brought a load of translators in for the event I was attending. It was very surreal.

The other one was when we were attending a wedding. I got there and there was another of the school mums from my DC primary school (which was very small so knew her quite well). We were a bit baffled to see each other there so I asked how she knew the bride and groom. The bride was her husband's cousin. The bride was also my second cousin. We had no idea of the connection.

That was surreal - and very cool!

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Original poster
Lardychops · 14/05/2025 08:21

2chocolateoranges · 13/05/2025 23:09

Dh and I were on holiday at popular seaside resort in the Uk, we were at a popular tourist attraction where we climbed to the top and met his childhood friend who he hadn’t seen for years, bizarrelly we met him on holiday the year after too!

we always joke, I wonder if we Weill meet Ryan this year

Maybe this year!!

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Original poster
Lardychops · 14/05/2025 08:22

Latenightreader · 13/05/2025 23:31

On holiday abroad about 15 years ago with a small tour group - 10 of us in total including me and my mother. One evening at dinner we sat a couple we had only spoken to briefly before. It turned out that the man and my mother had grown up within a few streets of each other, and his best friend (who he hadn’t seen since 16) was her cousin. We were able to reunite them after over 50 years.

What was weirder was we were supposed to go the following week but it was full. They were supposed to be on the non-touring beach holiday by the same company but made a mistake whilst booking.

Edited

Wow 50 years! X

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Original poster
Lardychops · 14/05/2025 08:23

Latenightreader · 13/05/2025 23:40

Another - as a student I went to visit a school friend at another university. She warned me there was a theme night and I should bring a costume. I didn’t have anything but was able to borrow from someone on my landing. At the event I was chatting to someone who said a school friend of his was at my uni and mentioned her name. My response? “know her? I’m wearing her clothes!”

Brilliant!

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Original poster
Lardychops · 14/05/2025 08:24

HairyToity · 14/05/2025 08:17

Met a friend at uni, and when I went to stay at her house (about two hours from where I live), and got chatting to her mum, it turned out me and my friend were second cousins. We were bridesmaids for each other and been life long friends. Still blows my mind to think my granny and her grandfather were siblings.

That’s a loveky life coincidence x

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OnyourbarksGSG · 14/05/2025 08:24

I was involved in a hobby. I’m British and a friend came over who recently moved into our town from South Africa. I told him about me travelling to America to visit an expo and the American guy arranging it was worried as he couldn’t get in touch with his friend and he had been AWOL for 5 days and he was supposed to be giving a huge talk and series of workshops. Friend sitting next to me drinking coffee points to the magazine on the table and says “ that guy ? I went to school with him and our mums are best friends. He was attacked by an animal 4 days ago in the bush and he’s had to have surgery in some tiny hole in the ground hospital to save his arm, then he had to travel onto a city for more surgery. He won’t be going to the expo “.

sure enough, 4 hours later it was confirmed and my mind was blown that somehow a South African id just met knew the person my American friend was looking for, half the world away.

JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn · 14/05/2025 08:24

A friend of my sister has a photograph of herself as a little girl riding a donkey on a beach. There is a random little boy in the background of the photo. Many years later, she met and married him!

rosydreams · 14/05/2025 08:26

i live in Hertfordshire,went to Cornwall on holiday. Bumped into my daughters teacher lol

BlueEyedBogWitch · 14/05/2025 08:32

FoxChops · 14/05/2025 00:00

I’ve mentioned this a few times before

40 years ago, aged 13, I had a book called ‘Come Back Lucy’ by Pamela Sykes. Really loved the book but of course, who knows where it went to over the years?

anyway a few years back, in a fit of nostalgia, I went on Amazon to try and find it. It was out of print at the time but I found one on their marketplace for a few quid. Seller up in Scotland - I’m in the south east of England

ordered it and it arrived a few days later. Opened it up to see my name and address, written on the title page, in my own handwriting - just as I would do to all the books I owned

yep - I’d bought my own book back, many decades later

I love this!

Original poster
Lardychops · 14/05/2025 08:33

JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn · 14/05/2025 08:24

A friend of my sister has a photograph of herself as a little girl riding a donkey on a beach. There is a random little boy in the background of the photo. Many years later, she met and married him!

Thats wild!! X

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Original poster
Lardychops · 14/05/2025 08:34

rosydreams · 14/05/2025 08:26

i live in Hertfordshire,went to Cornwall on holiday. Bumped into my daughters teacher lol

Hopefully DD didn’t mind lol!

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