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?

*his adoptive parents changed his name to John

OzziePopPop, that made me think of my friend who was living in Tokyo when the sarin attack happened on the underground. He is a proper Type A, huge achiever at work, always wide awake early, NEVER oversleeps. That day though he did, and missed the attack, which was on his underground route at the time he should've been on it.

A couple of days before Christmas a few years back I was shopping in my local town when a lady approached me asking if I could give her directions to the crematorium as she wasn't local.

It was actually on my way home so I told her to follow me and I would take her there myself, she was very grateful and that was that.

Fast forward to two days later on Christmas Eve, DH and I had gone Christmas shopping in a large city approx 100 miles from where we live.

We were walking down a really quiet back alley with virtually no one around except a woman walking towards us.

Yes, you've guessed it, it was the same cemetery woman from 2 days earlier!! Both of us were so shocked and I still can't believe it happened.

if there are any statiticians out there I would love to know the odds?!

Me and my then fiancé went on a engagement shopping trip. He wanted to get an idea of the style of ring I would like. However my then fiancé wanted the ring to be a surprise so I left the choosing and when he would buy it up to him.
My fiancé is a real thinker and unbeknownst to me took ages to chose the ring.
Fast forward months later and my fiancé proposes. I love my ring.
A few months after having my ring I decide to look at the box and diamond certificate that came with his purchase.
As I look through all the details it states the day and year my ring was created....26th September 2018
It was the same day and year of our first ever date

My grandad was very ill in hospital with COVID for months, my son who shares his name broke his arm and we got sent to A+E and then to X-ray. Ds starts asking about grandad and where abouts in the hospital he is ect. So we’re in the waiting area and a bed gets pushed in behind where I’m sitting. Without even thinking I turn around and shout “grandad” it was actually him! The nurses wouldn’t let me close or hold his hand but we talked for a few minutes. Unfortunately he passed away soon after. I just felt it was him

@whinetime89 - what the hell is a contiki?

Can someone please explain what DGF actually stands for?

Dear Grandfather

@AngharaKaligdaughter

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.

Devil looks after his own, Anghara

[quote Pinkyavocado]@whinetime89 - what the hell is a contiki?[/quote]
I think it's like a gap year travelling trip.

I have a couple relating to travel

In 2018 we did a package holiday to Majorca, Thomas Cook holiday. In 2019 we did a similar holiday to Menorca again with Thomas Cook, and we bumped into a family we had been friendly with the year before - kids playing in pool friendly, no numbers exchanged or anything!

In 2006 I did a 4 week trip through Southern Africa, 15 people on this trip in total, we figured out I had been in the same tutor group at school as one of the other peoples cousins. My friend who I travelled with discovered one of the other people lived in the house next door to her brothers old house! Quite freaky out of 15 people which included 1 American, 1 German, 2 Australians and 11 from UK!

While in my final year training to be a dentist I saw one of my patients for a check up. She had her young daughter with her who told me all about her visit to the children’s dept and how she was a very special case. She gave me all the details.
A month later I was taking my clinical part of my finals, we had to see a random patient, take a full history and present them to the examiners. On arriving onto the clinic we had to choose a number from the head nurse and go to that patient. And yes it was the daughter of my regular patient.
My other weird coincidence is that I was born on the exact day my DH’s father died. I had been going out with him for a year before he told me. It is also the same date as his step father and my niece’s birthday.

@Angrymum22 completely unrelated but I wondered if you might know - how long would you go without an eruption of adult teeth before you assume they aren’t any? My eldest lost two baby teeth January 2020 and the adult teeth have not arrived and no signs. There aren’t actually any space for them but I’m beginning to wonder if they’re just missing. Also has no enamel on any of their adult teeth so far either which is stressful and limited advice from the dentist. Feel free to ignore me - appreciate you aren’t working!

As a student nurse I visited a patient in the house my dad had grown up in.
The elderly man remembered buying the house from my grandfather decades earlier. He even remembered his name.

My Mum's mum, my grandmother died in 2019. She outlived her husband, my grandad John, by 22 years. On the funeral day driving behind the hearse I realised the number plate of the hearse said JON at the end. It was like he was with her for her final journey.

My Dad's dad, my grandad died in 2020. He outlived his wife, my grandmother by 10 years. On the morning of the funeral I wondered if the last three letters of the hearse would carry any personal meaning.
As it rolled up outside the crematorium I had to laugh. The last three letters were FFS.

I've shared this before on MN but can't resist posting it again:

As a teen living abroad, on a Saturday we went to do the family grocery shop at the hypermarket. Whilst shopping, dad got called in to work for something but was to pick us all up outside the store once we'd done shopping.
So we didn't end up taking long and were all sat outside on a bench when the phone started ringing in the phone booth next to us. My mum the nosey parker decided for some reason to answer it! And found herself on the other end of the line to my dad! Who had misdialled. He had intended to ring a cable supplier in the next country for work.

I used to babysit for a little girl before her parents separated and moved to different parts of town.

I bumped into the mum in town one afternoon and she was heavily pregnant with her new partners baby. This was before the days of scans so the baby's sex was unknown. It was a very brief exchange, just a "hello, lovely to see you, are you well" sort of stuff.

I went home that day and have no idea why, when I opened my mouth to speak to my mum, told her had seen a friend of this lady who told me she had given birth to a little boy and named him Thomas.

Later that week there was an announcement in the paper saying the lady had given birth to a son called Thomas the day after I saw her.

Careful guys - this thread has made The Fail!

My great Aunt died and my cousin had a cross stitch sampler made in the 19th century. My cousin put the sampler away and forgot about it. Many years later having a clear out she came across it on the same date and the month embroidered on it.

I became good friends with someone I met randomly through sport. Got chatting and turned out we'd both lived abroad, on a very far away island when we were small. We asked our parents if they had known each other, which they had (so we had met as infants), but the really amazing thing was her Dad had signed my British birth certificate (I have two as was born abroad)! Was great meeting him a while later.

The week I received papers about a boy in care who would become my son I met his biological grandparent as part of my job - I wasn't supposed to be working that day either I had swapped for a sick colleague.

I was snogging my boyfriend goodbye at a train station when I was 14 when a bus pooed on my hair. He didn't notice I'm clearly a great kisser. I told myself it meant 7 years good luck to make myself feel better then forgot all about it. It was April.

Fast forward and I'm 21, waking down the street and a bus poos my hair. I suddenly remember the first incident, almost exactly 7 years earlier - its May now. I tell the friend I'm visiting, we laugh, I tell a few people.

Fast forward, I'm 28, on the beach in April with some friends. I'm in the same spot on the sand for over 2 hours, I go for a wee and someone nicks my seat. When I come back from the loo I arrive in time to see them being pooed on, by a bird.

It got a bit fuzzy after that, I think I shipped my 35 year old poo appointment but got bird poo on me again at 36. I'm 42 now, waiting to see when my next batch of good luck will arrive

Ps I have had a fairly lucky life I guess, I'm pretty happy with most things, so I'm not disputing the power of bird faeces

Aaargh lots of typos including my current age. And I missed out my replacement poo at 29 when 28 got nicked by someone else.

I'm sure you still get the gist. I have a higher power guardian angel looking out for me who manifests every 7 years as a shitting bird.

Not long after my nan's passing my grandad came home from work to find a man cutting the hedge of his front garden. When my grandad asked the man 'what on earth he was doing' the man replied ' it's okay, I cleared it with the lady of the house'.
Grandad explained that he now lived alone, but the guy said that he had knocked in the door and a lady had answered. The guy went on to describe my Nan in detail to my grandad. My Nan was very distinctive in looks as she had beautiful natural red curly hair, a face full of freckles and always wore a apron .

I live on the south coast and my best friend lives 150 miles away in a rural village in the East Midlands. Over a period of many years he occasionally drank in his local pub, and one day found there was a new landlord, who said the previous one had moved away. A few weeks later on a visit to me he visited my local where, to the astonishment of both of them, he found that previous landlord behind the bar.

I have another two to relate. One now, one tomorrow as it's 1am.

Throughout my childhood I heard my Dad relate again and again the story of how in 1942 he and his friend escaped from being prisoners of war in Germany during WW2. They ended up in Switzerland, where they parted and never saw one another again.

In 1978 I started work in London and, after a few weeks, a colleague nearing retirement age approached me and said he'd seen my (very unusual) surname on a document and asked if my Dad's name was X.

Turned out he was the man Dad had escaped with back in 1942.

The chances against this happening must be millions to one against.

Naturally I put them in touch and they met, reminisced, and got blind drunk.