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 should add, about the bank card.. I lost it, cancelled it, then found it again. So I still have it, but never got to use it.. as it was the only bank card I ever lost.. but it somehow turned up again a year later.

I started a new job in a city quite a committee away from where I lived.

I started on the same day as the girl sitting opposite me.

She had the same middle and surnames (not particularly common), was born the day before me, or mum's had the same first and middle name and our partners at the time had the same surname too (again not overly common).

We stopped asking each other questions after that.

Ooh weird as long as I am quick writing this the last couple of posts have been about numbers and mine is too! So, I kept the same PIN number for years, before I had DC's (just got a new card when it expired). The number was 1124. First DC was born 11/04/02 and second DC was 11/02/04. It's sort of something and nothing really and I didn't immediately realise but it is a coincidence. (Have not given the actual numbers/dates but very similar)

I know someone who has one arm. When they were a kid, they slipped into an enclosure at the zoo and were mauled by a big cat.

When I was first told this story, I thought it was an elaborate story and the person was joking but a quick Google confirmed it! It was all over the news in our home town.

I bet nobody believes the story when the person retells it!

The weirdest things that have happened to me have been around the time my parents have died.

My mum had pancreatic cancer and one morning I woke up feeling really strange. I was absolutely distraught and went to work in tears feeling this really strong need to see her. My brothers were already on their way to see her and I managed to get myself and my husband out of work and we started to make the drive there (it was 3 hours away). My brother called me an hour into the drive and told me she had passed away 😢.

I was scrolling through Facebook videos one morning and on came a video of a doctor confirming someone’s death for the very first time, the complexion of the man really reminded me of my dad and it made my heart sink so I put my phone down and went and made myself some breakfast, that video made me feel very odd.
When I went back to my phone I had a missed call off my dads wife, I messaged her to ask if everything was ok as they were abroad on holiday and had only arrived the day before. She replied that no. My dad had suffered a cardiac arrest and she waiting for an ambulance.

In 1990's our family spent a night in Kalahari desert in Namibia. Our previously booked motel ( a la spaghetti western) turned out to be a creepy adobe hut, so we'd decided to risk sleeping in our car.Having set up camp under the only tree for 100 km
We decided to take turns at 2 hour watches.My son and I did the midnight stint and having assured him that the smell of fetid breath on the wind must be an escaped camel, all was going well until the UFO incident.Undulating coloured lights on the horizon, droning noise getting nearer.
. DP advice" keep low and don't let them see the whites of your eyes" I swear to God I actually said that.
It was a huge articulated lorry navigating the undulating sand dunes, lit up with a rainbow of lights around the front screen.

My mum had died in hospital on a Monday around 9:00 am. Got home later understandably upset. There was a knock on my front door. Opened it and there was a gypsy lady selling lucky heather .

Never ever had had anyone do this either before or after the event.

I have loads but 3 people never believe are...

I met the whole royal family by chance. I was new in the country and got a temp job at Chelsea flower show. Basically just standing at main tent entrance giving directions when asked. Day before opening to public, important people get a private viewing. In walked entire royal family. They walked out my entrance. So I came within 2 meters of them all. I remember it vividly, the queen walked slightly in front and looked me straight in the eyes and glared. The queens mum was in a mobility scooter and smiled at me. Princess Anne and Margaret glanced at me but Prince Charles stepped towards me smiled and greeted me. I was so close to them I could have reached out and touched them all. I later realised I was supposed to curtesy to the queen probably why she glared at me as I just stood grinning like a treasure cat saying hi to all of them as if they were mates of mine. I also remember thinking how good looking Charles was close up in person.

Anyway being new to the country I thought meeting the royals wasn’t such a big deal, thought most people had met them and used to frequently tell the story, I’ve stopped telling it now because nobody ever believes it. I had a massive fight with my MIL as ever since I told the story she has called me a liar. She still doesn’t believe me. It’s sad as I want to share my story but too scared to as people immediately label me as a liar.

Next two are...

I was new to country and went out last minute with mates to a club, met good looking guy on his last night travelling on holiday from New Zealand. We exchanged email addresses and started a very long distance relationship. When I told my grandmother who was in South Africa on the phone that I was going to New Zealand to see him, she told me she had a penpal since she was a young child in New Zealand. Ends up her penpal was in fact my new BFs grandmother.

Last one ...
when I was 22 my grandmother died from cancer in her final days she decided to knit a blue baby cardigan and teddy. Very unusual for her as she never knitted in fact nobody even knew she could. She labelled it as a gift for me. Family posted it to me apologising saying they didn’t know why. I pack it in box and forget about it. 6 years later I am 12 weeks pregnant and we move house while unpacking I come across it and immediately know I am carrying a boy. My son wore it at his christening and it fitted like it was custom made to his exact measurements. My son would have been her first born great grandchild. I am convinced in her final days she just knew.

Mine's a numbers coincidence.
Married on Friday 13th, dc1 born Saturday 13th, dc2 born Sunday 13th.

My darling Grandmother (DGM) often said that she wanted to die when she was 70 as she did not want to be a burden to her family. No one took any notice as she was extremely well and fit with no ailments what so ever. She told me a gypsy had come to her door selling heather and asked my DGM what her wish was? "To die when I'm 70" she replied. A month after her 70th birthday she died peacefully in bed. I was 19. It was a dreadful shock to us all. Still think she went way too young and miss her every single day!

@BrownEyedGirl80

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

You don't really think this, do you? According to Urban Dictionary it's been around since 2007, and has several different people claiming to have invented it.

I worked a nursing bank shift on a neurology ward. It was quiet so I was reading some patient notes. A middle aged man's notes went back 25 years.
He'd had frequent CT and MRI scans, examination etc of his brain throughout the 25 years, and no brain tumour detected.
He was eventually sent for psychiatric help.
He was in the ward with a brain tumour.

@SmashedAvocado i’m very sorry for your loss x

@ChristmasFluff

Oh, and another one that at the time I thought was unique and people would never believe, but I googled it and found a few videos on YouTube.

I drove through the end of a rainbow. I saw the rainbow hitting the motorway, and then I drove through it. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life - the rainbow seemed inside the car as well as outside, and I was driving thinking 'this can't be happening....' and then 'it can't be lasting this long...' - it lasted seconds rather than the moment I would have expected.

And then it was gone. Just so precious a memory

I don't think this is physically possible

My grandparents lived in a village when I was small, where my mum grew up. We were visiting when I was maybe 8/9 and me, my brother and my cousins were playing at the park over the garden wall when two boys came to play with us.

After a while one of the boys dug out an old an old school dirty magazine (nothing dreadful just nudes, this was the 80s) which I was disgusted by and my older cousin went to tell our mums. My mum came over the wall, gave the boys a bollocking and marched them off to one of the boys houses (she knew his mum).

Twenty odd years later. I'm married with children of my own, at MILs house having a general conversation about naughty things we did as children and DH (who is from the next village along from where my Gran lived, ILs still live there) is asking his mum if she remembers coming to pick him up from his friends house in Gran's village after they got in trouble at the park. Turns out he was one of the naughty boys with the dirty magazine that my mum had marched home!

Despite being from roughly the same area we went to different schools and didn't 'meet' until I was 22.

The other boy actually turned out of have been in a relationship with one of my best friends when we were in our late teens too.

My BILs teacher when he was in primary was A famous comedians son - many years later when on a gap year he ended up in Thailand and fell in love with a Thai lady he followed her back to her village rather than continue his travels ( it was in a small Non tourist village ) the owner of the lodge he was staying in there told him that the previous occupant had also been English but had sadly committed suicide. A few weeks later his mum told him that his old teacher had died in Thailand - it turned out to be the His old teacher who had committed suicide in the room he was now staying in.

@GizmoBasil

My 4 siblings and I all have the exact same birthday.

It's not 9 months after your dad's birthday is it? 😉😆

My ex was visiting New York for a few days and was due to visit his cousin who worked at the world trade centre on 9/11. His cousin overslept that day (never had before) and so didn’t wake my ex as planned. Fortunately for them they were both still at home (uptown) when the planes hit and so escaped. Cousin swears he set his alarm and has never been late for work before or since!

When I was 13 I had very severe tonsillitis. The night before I was hospitalised with quinsy, I had a very strange fever hallucination. All night long there was a family of Native Americans stood around my bed. The hallucination lasted all night, every time I opened my eyes, there they were holding vigil, they eventually fizzled away at dawn. After two days in hospital, I was able to speak again and told my mum about this fever induced vision. My mum looked visibly shaken and went on to tell me that when she was a little girl, she had had a very bad time of scarlet fever and she had also been 'visited' by Native Americans whilst gripped in fever. We described the same family set up, the way they were dressed and the same way they fizzled out at dawn. We have absolutely no ties with North America.

Ok for me I knew when my best friend went into labour as I experienced her labour pains for 6 hours that wasn’t pretty as I thought it was another IBS attack it wasn’t till after we both realised the time they started and when she crowned.

Another with lightening I got hit at aged 7 and ever since then it follows me so I avoid it at all costs as it fried my internet, my trees, my fence so when it’s thunderstorms I go to my bed.

This is my dogs when one has to be pts they howl separately and then sing together as if in saying good bye another friend came for cuddles as her dog had been pts that day and all mine (I have a fair few) did the same. It was eerie but comforting to my friend and to this day she still talks about it and they still do it.

My son saw his cousin at the end of bed at 2am in the morning it was the time she died at.

My granddad died on the same day my son was born. He smiled and said my great great grandson and said his name and then passed. Mum came in later and I said my son name and then she told me about my granddad this was 34 years ago now.

I have another one. My great Aunty visiting war graves in France found a man laying flowers at an uncles grave. Conversation was had. He was the son of the uncle, none of us knew there had been a child for him. He came along to the family reunion a year later. So so emotional.

When dad died last year we were sorting out the endless paperwork he kept. Amongst it all we found a car log book from 1971 (yep that man kept every bit of official stuff he ever had), anyway the former keeper of the car lived in London and dad never knew him. By some strange twist of fate the original owner moved to the town nearest me, I got together with his son and had his GD. Finding that log book was the most surreal, spooky feeling ever.

My son saw his cousin at the end of bed at 2am in the morning it was the time she died at.

My granddad died on the same day my son was born. He smiled and said my great great grandson and said his name and then passed. Mum came in later and I said my son name and then she told me about my granddad this was 34 years ago now.

Wow, especially the story about your granddad- so lovely

I have three brothers all with the same first name! Basically, I grew up with one brother, let’s call him John. Then when I was about 25 my dad announced that before he met my mum he’d been with a woman who’d given birth to a baby who was originally called Kevin but his birth parents had changed his name to John. My mum knew about that one. Anyway, about 2 years after they divorced, my dad had a one night stand and got another woman pregnant. He claims he didn’t know but I don’t know whether that’s true or not. Anyway, his son got in touch when he was about 19 and he was also called John 😂 We all get on famously now but it can get a bit confusing sometimes.