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?

Oh I gave another.

My uncle had a long term girlfriend in his 20's, they broke up and he moved abroad. A good few years after he heard through family that her mum had passed. He wanted to contact her but didn't have a number. He remembered that she used to work in a local photography shop and Decided to call there to see if she still worked there or if they had her number. So he called and she didn't work there, nor did the owner have her number. Just as they were saying goodbye the man on the phone said "Wait! She has just walked passed the window!!l" he ran out and got her, she came to the phone and they swapped numbers! I love that story!!

Few

A new girl started in Dds class,they became fast friends,she came to our house a few times and we met up with her mum and sibling in the park,got on really well.
One day the girl was at our house again but this time the mum text to say the girls stepfather would be picking her up this time.
My Dds older half brother(Dad's side) turns up,who I had only ever seen a photo of,he's 30,she's 8.
Long story short they stay in contact and my Dd is now an Auntie to a step niece (who is also slightly older and her best friend)step nephew and a newborn niece.

Holiday in Ibiza in 1999, was a girls holiday. I met a bloke the first night, and we really hit it off. Didn't shag him because my best mate came back to our room and it was a small room. Stayed in touch when we got home, never met up as we both had family and work stuff going off then I got back with an ex.

2 years later mate was in magaluf and bumped into him again. First thing he asked was where Highland was. I should have been on that holiday but was still in an on/off relationship with knobhead ex. Shoulda/woulda/coulda....

I grew up in a house that my great-grandfather had built, which had been in our family for over 150 years. My parents had both always lived in the area so I knew all about its history. I moved twice as a student and eventually ended up in a different city, in an area I knew nothing about. I found a local forum and posted on it, just out of curiosity, to find out a bit more of the history of the street, and a lovely older man replied to tell me that I was living next door to the house he'd grown up in. We got chatting a bit about the history of the place and then it transpired that he was now living in my home town, in the next street to my parents' house, and before that he'd lived in the same two streets I'd lived in as a student and a postgrad, so we'd lived in exactly the same four places in reverse order!

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

When I first got together with DH he was renting a room in a house in Liverpool from an old school friend “mike”. I hadn’t met Mike but for some reason I just couldn’t remember his name and referred to him as Dave. DH was staying with me and I agreed to drive him home and meet Mike for the first time. On the journey DH kept emphasising his name was Mike not Dave and I was even jokingly practicing being introduced to him.
When we arrived DH rushed to the loo and I walked into the lounge and said
“Hi, Im Hopping, DHs girlfriend” . He replied “ hi, I’m Dave”

The housemate, Mike, was in the garden and his friend Dave had come in to make a drink.

Another one. My DF was in hospital after a severe stroke, very poorly. Opposite him on the ward was a gentleman whose son was visiting from another part of the country. When we stood up to leave at the end of visiting hours the man's son came over to us and said that he'd been a student of my DF 30+ years ago and that he'd been a massive influence on his life, was the reason he did his current job etc. He was very moved to know my DF was so poorly and we kept in touch. When my DF then died the man offered to come and speak at his funeral. We're still in touch now.

I was on holiday in a large city in the Far East. I got into a taxi and started chatting to the driver. He started asking me about where I lived, and then where I worked (very large NHS organisation). He then told me that his sister worked at the same hospital. Bearing in mind there were about 5000 employees, I thought nothing further of it. Until he told me her name. I'd helped her move house the previous week!

He spent the whole day showing me lots of amazing places and wouldn't take a penny in taxi fares.

I started a club for my hobby and had 2 people join. Many years later we were generally chatting about our lives and I discovered she had been born about 5 miles from me, and her parents had married 2 hours earlier than mine on the same day, same 5 miles apart, 60 years previously. This is about 150 miles from where we now live. We had got married the same year and looked at the same flat to buy the year before. Which belonged to a murderer. The other member knew all my friends from a group I'd belonged to when I was 15, and my best friend was a school friend of hers, but we never met.

My lovely slightly mad uncle after a drink would talk about his first family, he left them behind in Singapore I believe ( he was going j the navy). He married my aunt and they had 5 children. After he died we found letters from his first family in the loft. We always thought he was making it up. So sad.

My ex husband was called Benjamin. My fiancé is also called Benjamin.

Both of their mums were called Sally.

And they both worked for the same restaurant chain (not at the same time though).

Strange but true.

My husbands uncle was married 3 times, all the wives were called Marion and shared the same birthday. Very strange.

I met someone whose friend became close with Jay Z (and Beyonce) having met him on holiday in Croatia. They were sunbathing on a beach and a yacht moored up close by, and it turned out it was them on boats. Apparently they now have a holiday with him every year and their kids refer to him as "Blue Ivy's Daddy"

My eldest son Ashley was born at 3.17 am on 17th March and three years later my second son was born on 20th March.
A few years ago my favourite author James Herbert died on the 20th March - his last novel was called Ash.
Also several years ago my parents moved into a flat - it was flat 20 on the 3rd floor in a tower block with 17 floors.

Another vote for the lovely cat story (and place marking). I also really want a kitten.

Many years ago my car was missing a wiper blade and I kept procrastinating from getting it fixed. One day I was driving and it began raining, so I pulled over in front of a random house. My passenger suggested we knock and ask if the residents could help, but I was like don't be silly, how could they help? She knocked anyway.

A man answered, barely seemed to understand what she said, but shuffled off to open a shed... revealing a shed full of car parts, including dozens of wiper blades. He found one that fitted my car and off we went.

What are the odds!

I met DH at Uni but when his mum moved to The UK when he was 10 she bought a post office. She was deciding on the final 2 and picked A but almost went for B, which was my home village and my Mum worked there!

I was on holiday in Los Angeles about 15 years ago, staying in a hotel in downtown LA. I'd booked to see a band at the House of Blues while I was there - on the evening of the gig I went down to ask the concierge about the best way to get to the venue - and bumped into a friend from the UK who was travelling home from holiday in Australia and had a 24 hour stopover in LA. Neither of us knew that the other would be in LA on that particular date.

Loving this thread and the wonderful stories!

Great thread! Love these stories.

@Apple1971

I was involved in a major train crash in America when I was 21 (in 1993). I was very lucky to escape unharmed (apart from a few bruises and cuts etc) as 1/3 of the people on the train didn’t survive.

I’d been working on a summer camp and we were travelling afterwards when it happened.

Was that the Amtrak Mississippi crash? I was on that train a few days before. We were also students traveling after working the summer in the US.

Test

@ErniesGhostlyGoldTops

I have discovered the name and family of the American GI that fathered my half brother in 1944. My half brother is thrilled as finally he knows who he is. The Americans not so much.

I discovered my father in law's US airman father and FIL is thrilled to finally know his family. His father is sadly deceased but the rest of the family (including his American half sister) have been very welcoming. Just wish we could get him over there to visit!

Went for a walk around the backstreets of Pinner with my mum and bumped into the ex-girlfriend of my ex-boyfriend from Uni who was visiting her friend. We were all pals so no awkwardness but very strange sensation to encounter her in the middle of nowhere (OK Pinner isn't nowhere but it was still quite surprising).

Possibly less surprising was when I was with said boyfriend on a record-buying recce in town and he bumped into an old friend of his that he'd lost touch with, also buying records (Berwick Street, peak indie record shops, early 90s). I was less impressed, though stoic, when he announced he'd see me later and trotted off to hang out with his chum ;)

Jo