To ask for your stories of strange coincidences?

[Pepperwand]

Today I stopped at a petrol station and wanted to put £30 of fuel in the car but it blipped over to £30.10. When I went to pay I also bought two lottery tickets for £5 so paid £35.10. As I was putting the tickets in my purse I found two old lottery tickets so got them checked. First one won £30 and the second £5.10!

So, can I ask for your stories of coincidences?

My friend was killed by an alligator in Florida about 13 years ago- the day before she had posted a new background on her MySpace profile of an old surrealist manipulated photograph of a long pair of elegant woman’s legs coming out of the mouth of a big alligator along with a post about a dream she’d had about being squeezed and suffocated by a wild animal and feeling it’s teeth in her skin.

Oh, and my grandma passed away on the same date as her husband (my grandfather - I never met him).

He died 50 years previously. I like to think that he came to pick her up

My first DC was born at 15.15. I thought that was very precise but that was about it. Then years later my 2nd DC was born at 22.22 😊

And for a less horrific coincidence, I saw my soccer coach (from when I was about 8 and lived in South Carolina) walking in the Samaria gorge in Crete last summer - 30 years and a couple of oceans away.

@PalJoey is that alligator story true?

A woman who I met in my university halls of residence in London was from the same (small) city as me. We didn't really didn't keep in touch/weren't friend on Facebook. About ten years later I'm living in an unrelated city and she moved in over the road.

Also, another girl I met at my uni halls (who I didn't keep in contact with) was from the city I now live in. My dh (who never left this city) was in her primary and secondary school class. Only found out when I randomly bumped into her with my husband and she became incredibly confused about the two of us together as we were from "separate" lives.

A guy I once knew was friends with eight people I knew irl and none of who knew each other, lived nowhere near each other (three foreign countries) or had any other connection than me.

@Bignicetree it absolutely is.

We were on holiday in America and went to a craft market, and got chatting to the guy selling at a stall.

Turned out he was born in my tiny rural English home town that nobody has ever heard of.

At our church the priest made an announcement of the birth of a child of a couple who are fairly active in the Church. Their name is the same as our surname (really NOT common, and no relation), they were pleased to welcome their new ds who has exactly the same first and middle names as my son (they do not know us). I introduced myself to the woman after mass and we remarked on the coincidence. Making conversation I asked her when the baby was born, and the birthday was also the same as my ds (although 8 years apart!)

I was born on the exactly same day my DHs father died. Around the same time of the day as well. I didn’t know until we had been seeing each other for 12 months.

Oh the new comments reminded me of one.

I decided to do my first holiday alone to the states. While in vegas I booked a helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon. So 6 of us boarded the helicopter.. while in the canyon I got chatting to a woman with her son and commented on her English/american accent. Turned out she had moved from the uk to Boulder for her american husband... asked her where she was from as you do..... she was from my city.... went to my high school and was in the same classes as my brother who she remembered....

Also my parents share the same birthday, as did both sets of grandparents. Shared between marries couples not all 6 with the same...That would be weird

I sold a dress on eBay a few years ago, and when the payment came through the woman who bought it - let's call her Sarah Green - lived literally around the corner from me, I walked past her front door every day on the way to the bus stop. I thought that was a pretty incredible coincidence in itself, given that anyone in the whole UK could have bought it.

BUT THEN, a few days later I met up with an old school friend who was visiting London, and who was staying with another friend of hers called Sarah. When we were consulting where would be mutually convenient to meet, it transpired that Sarah lived right around the corner from me... yep, it turned out to be Sarah Green, the very same one! I was gobsmacked.

(My friend, annoyingly, didn't seem to think it was that remarkable )

I was waking through central London with a friend, telling her how much I'd loved solo traveling. One of the highlights was meeting another woman and cycling across the golden Gate bridge together. We hadn't kept in touch, but if had happy memories.

I was then explaining that I'd probably never see her again (she didn't live in London) when I bumped into her at some traffic lights.

I went to visit my XH to discuss getting divorced properly. We made a decision, had a hug and I left, feeling like that was closure on our marriage. As I drove away, our wedding song came on the radio.
Yes, I cried my heart out.

Met a bloke at work and got chatting to him. Became romantically involved.
Found out that we have had several sliding doors moments over the years - being at the same events etc even though we lived some 50 miles apart and were 3 years different in age. And we used to play on the same park in a completely random third place another 70 miles away from me (my grandparents lived there and his cousins did - we were probably on the same park at the same time).

However the weirdest thing is that our parents both have the same birthdays (not the same years) - so our fathers we're both born on the same date and so were our mothers.

Still freaks me out now.

So at a big London train station waiting for a friend. I helped a pair of American tourists who had just arrived and were trying to figure out buses etc. They were exhausted and needed to get to near Waterloo for their hotel. I pointed them at the right bus stop and showed them where to get tickets as they had enormous cases and the underground would have been a nightmare. So I met friend we went off for the afternoon and headed down near Waterloo to get some food. The restaurant we wanted was shut until 6pm so we decided to go in the pub next door. Sat at the bar chatting only to be tapped on the shoulder by the American couple I helped 6 hours earlier! I believe I will have featured in their holiday album as the english angel who helped them out (their words) 😁

I love these threads.

We once bumped in to someone we knew on a coach that was carrying us across the airport runway in Qatar to board a flight to Mumbai.
And on that same trip, on our very last flight home a colleague of mine was sitting behind us. Only ten people worked in our office and I was just coming back from a 6 month round the world trip!

Actually - for that same trip we had joint credit cards (chosen for being the best for foreign exchange) and my partner at the time (now DH) joked that he hoped his PIN would be 1234 - and it was!

My Dad's friend overheard another British accent when at the top of the Empire Staye Nuilding in New York. Turns out they were from the same town! Wow.

They then said to him "Do you know Chris XXXX by any chance?" - My Dad!!

Madness. Although I did once bump into an ex boyfriend in Colorado......

Err.... State Building*

My husband is an immigrant and has never lived outside of London since he moved here in the nineties except for a short time when he was doing an intensive training course and lived in a small market town in the North West.

We met at work and when talking he asked me where I was from and I was vague because I didn’t think he’d know anywhere apart from the big northern cities. Turns out he did know my home town because he spent six months living round the corner from where my parents live (and I grew up). He had even met my brother.

My second one is that my younger cousins had come down to London with my parents to visit me. My dad and I were taking them into town to sight see and went to get a train at clapham junction but just missed one and we thought we would have to wait a while. As luck would have it, a very delayed train from Brighton was pulling onto another platform, so we legged it round and all just managed to scoot on. My dad helped one of my cousins settle as I helped the other and as I was, I heard my dad say in a surprised voice “Oh, hello!”. I turned round at it was one of my older cousins, who we hadn’t seen in years. He lives and works in Brighton normally but had had to come to London for a training day. He had also missed a train and had got stuck on the delayed one. My dad had sat down right opposite him.

One of my closest friends works in a small town in Australia ( she is from New Zealand ). I live in uk. she came to visit me last year and I introduced her to my next door neighbour.

It transpired that my neighbours daughter lives in Australia and works in the same building as my friend.

This amazes me, there are 7.5 billion people in the world, what are the odds!

My daughter was solo travelling Australia recently and stayed with a couple on the 'Workaway' scheme, where you get your board and lodgings in exchange for doing a few chores/dog-walking etc.

It turned out that the guy has a Great-niece in our home-town that my daughter vaguely knows and, even more coincidentally, he was born literally just round the corner from where my DH grew up. His neighbour, who still lives there, is friends with my MIL!

Another one...
My dad was born on 14 October and DH's dad was born on 13 October.
My dad died on 29 January and DH's dad died on 28 January.
They were both 52 when they died.
Additionally, my mum also died on 28 January (many years later).

Friend A’s dad has sadly died when she was a small child
Friend B and I were helping her move house.
Fried A and I walked back into the flat from taking boxes to the car, friend B looked really spooked and held up a photo saying” why have you got a picture of my dads graduation?”.
Turned out their dads had studied and qualified together, and had been friends, joining their profession together in a small group.
Friend A was able to meet Bs dad, who told her lots of stories about their long career together at medical school, plus had lots of photos which A was able to copy.
It meant a huge amount to A.
Still makes me well
Up when I think about it.