Can we have a thread where we share unlikely but true stories?

[letsgowiththat]

I'll start.

My (non English speaking) DGF received an email (in English) from the solicitor of a man who claimed to be the son of a long lost relative from Africa claiming he was basically of princely status and there was an inheritance waiting for my DGF and his siblings.
So basically like the Nigerian prince scam.

Except it was all true and it was a relative who escaped my DGFs home country as he did not want to be drafted into the war and ended up never contacting anyone again and building a small empire in Africa, getting married (multiple times) and having DCs. He willed a small part of his accounts to my DGFs by then deceased mother who was his cousin and then it got passed down and split between my DGF and his siblings by default. Not life changing money but one of our favourite stories to tell!

The majority of the emails was done through google translate as well

Does anyone have any "sounds like a lie but is true" stories they'd like to share?

I've thought of a couple more too!

I volunteer on a telephone helpline. One night a few months back I answered a call to a woman who was basically telling me my own story. Her dh had died on the same date and same year as mine. They were the same age. They had the same first name. Their funerals were on the same day. They had a very similar medical history. What are the odds of me, out of all the volunteers nationwide, answering that particular call.

About 10 years ago my df came to live with us. We registered him at the same Gp surgery we used. On his first appointment there, he got chatting to the doc and it transpired that her father and mine knew each other and had gone to medical school at the same time in India.

Early one morning DH's friend, who was a notorious fibber, found out from Ceefax he had won the lottery jackpot. He rushed into the bedroom to tell his partner, who refused to get out of bed and look. "I bloody well know what day it is," she said, "Go away." It was April Fools' Day!

Even when she did look at Ceefax she was convinced he was playing an elaborate prank. But they had actually won over £10M.

We went on safari in Tanzania and finished the holiday at a beach flop place on Zanzibar, middle of nowhere, the evening we arrived, 2 girls arrived who had just climbed Mt Kilimanjaro and had come to relax at the end of their trip. They were 2 sisters who we immediately recognised as living in the same block of flats as us in London.

I've got an eBay one as well. A few years back the Wales football team had some really important game in the World Cup or something (I'm not a football fan, can you tell?) and in typical short-notice style, DS's primary school announced about two days in advance, in a letter at home time, that all the kids had to go in on the day of the match in a Wales football shirt to have a photo taken for the paper. DS didn't have one and was stressed about being the odd one out. They were all sold out locally and online but I found one in his size on eBay and bought it in desperation, even though I didn't think there was a hope in hell of it coming in time. About an hour after I'd ordered it, there was a knock at the front door - 'I've brought your football shirt. My brother lives round the corner and the sale came through just as I was setting out to see him.'

When I was a student I volunteered to man the phones processing credit card donations during a charity telethon.

One of the donors who came through on my line was own father. He didn't know he was speaking to me, and had no idea I volunteered for that charity, so I had some fun with him. When he gave me his name, I told him his address, which obviously surprised him, but I guess he assumed we had him on a database. After I had taken the credit card details I wished him a good afternoon and sent my good wishes to his wife and all his pets by name. Only then did I say, "Hi Dad!"

When I was a young person I started a military job, and was sent to the unit I was going to work at. I was very much on the look-out for attractive men at that point in my life and I was somewhat disappointed in the sergeant who got me settled in, and thought to myself "ha, I will probably end up married to him." We've now been married 20 years.

The day my grandmother died, I went to bed that night, sad. I woke at midnight, to hear music. It was a child’s piano that I had put away in a high shelf, months ago, playing by itself.

I am 100% white British so no overseas family connection. I can play the 6 Degrees Of Separation Game and get to Osama Bin Laden two different ways.

Mines a sad story and not a huge coincidence but still a bit strange how I found out.

As a kid (about 14) at school I went on a school trip and met a boy from another school on the ferry. We had a peck and a very innocent pen pal type friendship ensued for a few years actually. He lived about 150 miles away from him. I did see him once after but realised I didn't fancy him. We stayed in touch though although as we got older it dwindled. We both lived in major cities.

Anyway a few years later I went off to University in his city. I had his phone number and considered phoning him.

One day I was walking around a shopping centre and wandered into one of those big arcades. I was walking around and passed the kiosk when suddenly I saw a photo of this boy, his name and it said In Loving Memory Of.

Shocked, I found out that a few months before he'd been visiting my city with a friend and had been stabbed to death. I was so sad for him, he was only 19 and also relieved I didn't call the house asking to speak to him.

A while later my sister actually told me that around the time he'd been killed he had actually phoned me and I was out and she had forgotten to pass on the message. Presumably to say he was in my city and to ask if I wanted to meet up.

I often think about him.

It seemed like such a coincidence to me because I rarely went into arcades like that on my own, I was in his City but it's a massive city and had no idea if he lived close by to that shopping centre, and I don't usually pay attention to the kiosks. I didn't know he was into arcades either.

Anyway poor boy, it was really tragic.

My relative was struck by lightening and died. Everyone thinks I'm lieing when I mention it but its 100% true. She left 5 young children.

This happened last year during lockdown. I’m a health care professional and my patient (whom I’d never seen before) failed to attend. The lady turned up late very apologetic as she had mixed up her appointment times. I said I could still carry out the treatment no problem in the 10 minutes I had left. During that 10 minutes, I found out that she was in fact my DM’s long lost cousin and so my second cousin! We both couldn’t believe it. The following day she dropped a card off to pass on to mum with her details and they’ve been in touch ever since over the phone and can’t wait to meet up when restrictions allow it.

I was in full PPE that day and she also had a mask on and what is also strange is that she looks like my mum and when she showed me a photo of her only son, he looks like my brother!

A happy pandemic story

My mum rang round several members of my family telling them not to attend my wedding. So they didn’t. I don’t know what reason she gave to them. I’ve never fell out with anyone in my life until I returned to the town my mother lives in.

My sister’s boyfriend fathered a child to a child (she was 13, he was 35). My family dismisses it as harmless, ‘everyone makes mistakes’, etc

My sister has been sexually harassed by her model best friend’s boyfriend, by more than one colleague, more than one boss, .... all these people she has borrowed money from and not repaid, or been evicted by, or sacked.

My sister likes to tell people I had a fling with my cousin, when actually it was her that had the fling, he dumped her, then she and my mum trashed his flat, cut up his clothes, etc.

My sister borrowed very large sums of money off me when I was a lone parent, under the guise of repaying on her payday, but then she was sexually harassed at work .... again .... and left. Years down the line she now tells me I imagined lending her money, despite the evidence in my bank accounts showing direct transfers to her account.

When my Nan died, the family split up to attend two separate wakes because there was so much feuding going on between them all. I didn’t know this at the time and it’s still going on decades later.

My mum welcomed my kids absent dad to lodge overnight in her home, then sent him round to us at our until then secret address so he could cause a scene, police called, etc. She said it was because he deserved to see the kids. He hadn’t seen them for 4 years until then and they’re scared of him anyway.

My children’s father (absent dad) didn’t want to spend money fixing the blocked drain to the loo, and wouldn’t allow me to either (“waste of money, it’s not your house, etc”) so we had to walk 20 minutes to use a public loo or poop in carrier bags and dispose of them for six months until his brother finally paid to do the work.

He also strangled me once because I just got on his nerves .

That’s only the half of it.

I’m married now to a good man and the kids are fine, modest rented home and job, it’s all ok.
Half my family still don’t talk to me, unsurprisingly it’s only the ones who listened to my mum and sister’s stories.

You wouldn’t think I had this history it to look at me, I wear floral Boden frocks and am quiet and modest. Never underestimate what That Nice Lady Next Door is going through.

@Creamcustards I got a 2:1 which was a lot more than I deserved! I was not a hard working student! You may be right about the book. Or perhaps the professor had tipped off some of her current students about likely questions in the exam. You know the sort of thing ... "if I were you I would revise xyx ... " Or maybe this is proof that if I had not done any revision for the other units I would have got a first!

We live in Scotland. My DD1 went to the US to work at a country club one summer. She got chatting to one of the chefs there and told him the town where she comes from. It turns out he had worked in our town one summer and lived in temporary accommodation right opposite our house.

My ex got a new girlfriend when we split - unknown to him she was my cousin’s niece by marriage. Wasn’t too awkward as they weren’t together long. He’s now with my cousin’s ex workmate instead. I only know this as my cousin commented on seeing a lot of photos of my daughter on Facebook. Not been snooping honest!

Back in my teenage years me and my best friend both went out with the same boy. He died in his early 30’s but I’m still in contact with his lovely mum. One day she popped into the shop where I was working and said she’d had a dream that my friend was having a baby. That friend had always been adamant she never wanted children but had just confided in me that she was pregnant. Spooky!

My friend has a baby to a famous musician. He's not a household name but he's in a very famous band I'm sure most people under 40 have heard of. He's American and the band is still doing really well.
My friend worked at an arena when she was younger as someone who would basically meet the performers off the bus and show them to their rooms and she met this band on their tour when they performed at her arena. She wound up having a one night stand with this musician and got pregnant. She had to go to her manager to see if there was anyway someone could get contact details and she ended up with the sack but her manager contacted this bands manager and let him know. She got a DNA test when baby was born and this musician gives regular money for the (now) child and has even been to visit him on his birthday and whenever he's in England.
The first time she told me this I thought there was no way. But she literally has a whole photo album of this child and his dad. He's on the birth certificate and he sends emails all the time. She's so normal and quiet and hardly ever tells anyone the truth because she thinks it seems too OTT for people to believe.

A friend moved from London to the south coast, she was managing a Charity shop and was asked to do a customer refund, the customer was a woman who she had worked with in London

She asked the woman where she lived and it was near her, when she told her where she lived the conversation went like this

I live in *
Oh I used to lived there, what road
road
I lived in that road what number
**
She went silent and said I used to live in your house

When my friend bought her house the vendor was selling as it was the house he lived with his ex and his new partner didn't want to live in the same house.

The woman was the ex

@crashbandicootwarped don't be daft, I knew what you meant (I think it's a lovely story too)

@BrownEyedGirl80

I invented the word Primarni.When people refer to Primark (half primark half Armani)

I once lost a contact lens (the old kind that you had to keep and wash regularly) in a car park on the way into a shopping centre. I had lost other lenses and my parents were clear I would have to replace it

They dragged me in, we did our shopping, and then on the way out I immediately began searching for the lens. Immediately spotted it on the tarmac, it in the dark, on a rainy night.

My 13 year old self rejoiced at not having to spend all of my savings!

Years ago a man in my street caused some damage to my property and said he would pay for it. (Not a small sum) He didn’t contact me and I knocked on his door a few times, no reply. Then his neighbour told me he had moved out the week before but told me where he worked. I rang his work who told me he left work two weeks earlier to train as a police officer and they had no forwarding details.

I was working in the training office of the new police recruits. On the Monday morning I went into work and walked into the room and introduced myself to him. He almost fainted. Amazing coincidence and I got my money.

My DM died suddenly 17 months ago. My DSis lives in the US but she couldn't get a flight home for a couple of days so decided to go into work (craft shop) in the intervening days to keep her mind occupied.
On one of these days an English lady comes into her shop, buys something but seems to struggle with working out the coinage. They chat, lady says she has just transferred out there with her husbands job.
DSis tells customer about DM and that she's returning to UK in 2 days time to attend her funeral.
Customer asks where DM lives. Turns out her best friend is the vicar of our rural village church where DF is already buried and where mum will be laid to rest shortly.
DSis and vicars BF keep in touch in the US.
Just couldn't get over the coincidences.

When I was about 16/17 I had a boyfriend who was a couple of years older than me. He played darts in his local pub darts team. One night he took me to the pub, just the two of us, and said shall we play darts? I didn't want to as I'd never played before and thought it would be boring for me as obviously he'd just wipe the floor with me.

But, he persuaded me. So, I played my first ever game of darts and seemed to have incredible beginners luck. I kept scoring 180. I beat him!

Never been repeated .

@KinkyFink

*tonsilitis

Autocorrect - the gift that keeps on giving.

Just before I left to go and take a job abroad for a year I met a man I totally fell in love with. It was like I had met my soul mate, even though we had no time to spend together really we just had this amazing connection. It was whirlwind and I was totally smitten but 3 weeks later I had to leave him to get my flight. We stayed in touch for a few years but due to my travelling and work and his lifestyle it was really difficult to make anything work and eventually I lost touch. I met someone else, well, a few people actually and had other relationships of not much consequence over the years but always thought of him ‘as the one that got away.’ Eventually, probably 6 years after first meeting this guy, I went travelling. I backbacked all over Asia and ended up hanging out with two women from South London for company. We were in a very remote part of India and chatting on a train about home. Turns out they lived next door to this man! Totally bizarre! I had never really stopped thinking about him. They gave me his address, I wrote, visited him when home. That was 10 years ago now and we are happily married.