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Original poster

To think everyone has at least one weird coincidence story

221 replies

hazelnutpraline · 13/09/2021 15:59

These are mine:

I was showing DP some old photos from before I met him and came across one of my best friend dancing at a (big, thousands of people) festival. We both noticed at the same time that the only other person in the picture, dancing behind her, was HIS best friend. We hadn't met at that point, it was several years before we did, and none of us lived in the same part of the country.

Years ago when I smoked, my friend and I were sitting on the steps of a nightclub wanting a cigarette but neither of us had a lighter. We asked a man walking towards us for a light but he just gave us a dirty look and ignored us. As he walked past where we were sitting, a lighter fell out of his back pocket without him noticing, right in front of our feet.

Please tell me yours!

OP posts:
TheQueenOfDreams · 13/09/2021 16:10

Once I walked out of my house to get to work, dp had already gone to work. I stupidly left my purse, keys and travel card in the house and couldn’t get back in. I just stopped dead, thinking what the hell to do when I noticed a £10 on the floor. It was enough to buy myself a ticket to work.

Fuggly · 13/09/2021 16:17

Was divorced amicably about 13 years ago. The decree absolute was issued on (what would have been) our 20th wedding anniversary. My solicitor said it was a complete coincidence. I wasn't particularly bothered and it has been quite a useful anecdote over the years!

Original poster
hazelnutpraline · 13/09/2021 16:32

@TheQueenOfDreams perfect timing!

@Fuggly there’s something kind of neat about that, glad it was amicable anyway!

OP posts:
YouTubeAddict · 13/09/2021 16:50

We were talking about how DH and his mum had once bought cars with consecutive number plates. We both remembered each of the plates. No joke, about 20 minutes later we passed DH’s mum’s old car on the motorway!

Sparklesocks · 13/09/2021 17:15

There’s a pic of me at a party at university and in the background behind me talking to someone is my DP, just a few feet away. We hadn’t met at this point but 8 months later met and started dating. Been together 12 years now!

SunshineCake · 13/09/2021 17:18

I had a pen pal who told me about this guy she was writing to and eventually they met. About two years later I got a letter - we all met through a writing club - from a guy and it turned out to be that guy. Been married to him now for 22 years and together for over 25.

Sealionisland · 13/09/2021 17:27

I met a guy on a tiny island on the other side of the world. We dated for while back in the UK and then I finished it when I met my now husband (all done properly). Turns out this guy was my mum's 2nd cousin and is on my ancestry tree now. Have name changed as a bit outing.

namechangememe · 13/09/2021 17:30

Name change as very very outing and don't want to link to other posts!

My wedding party stayed overnight with me the night before my wedding day. My maid of honour and I have been best friends since practically birth, our parents are best friends so we were in a playpen together from babies.
She was wearing a t shirt to bed with a Polaroid photograph on the front, one she'd had a few years and was a sleep/lounge tee. Noticed there was a date in the corner of the Polaroid printed on the front, after double taking, we realised it said 18.06.16 - my wedding day. The exact day, month and year. She'd worn it hundreds of times and never noticed!

To think everyone has at least one weird coincidence story
schwaneverstressed · 13/09/2021 17:33

Parents wedding; my dads uncle realised he was best friends with my mums grandad in school in 1920, they hadn’t seen each other since then (this was in late 80s) . Friend was living in the same house that my mum’s grandad’s father was born in . 300 miles from where parents met .

99% convinced that they are actually related, and by that way, so are my parents albeit distantly and probably not by blood .

magicstar1 · 13/09/2021 17:34

Back in the 60's my grandmother was walking in the snow and saw 2 men shivering outside a shop. She talked to them and they'd come over from Ireland to see a football match but couldn't get tickets. She brought them home, the whole family had a great night of food, drink and laughter, and they went home the next day on the ferry.
Forward to the 80's and my mother is living in Ireland. She was working early shifts and arranged a lift with some of the security guards from the hospital. On the first morning she got in the car, and started chatting. A man said "oh you're from Liverpool", and proceeded to tell her all about the wonderful time he'd had there when he and his friend missed the match and a lovely lady took them home to her family. He couldn't believe it when she told him that was her mother.

JaneJeffer · 13/09/2021 17:43

That's so lovely @magicstar1

StrictlyAFemaleFemale · 13/09/2021 17:50

There is a great episode of this american life thats about coincidences. Really good stories!

LadyLolaRuben · 13/09/2021 17:50

@magicstar1

Back in the 60's my grandmother was walking in the snow and saw 2 men shivering outside a shop. She talked to them and they'd come over from Ireland to see a football match but couldn't get tickets. She brought them home, the whole family had a great night of food, drink and laughter, and they went home the next day on the ferry. Forward to the 80's and my mother is living in Ireland. She was working early shifts and arranged a lift with some of the security guards from the hospital. On the first morning she got in the car, and started chatting. A man said "oh you're from Liverpool", and proceeded to tell her all about the wonderful time he'd had there when he and his friend missed the match and a lovely lady took them home to her family. He couldn't believe it when she told him that was her mother.
Great story and typical Liverpool hospitality!
iklboo · 13/09/2021 17:54

A photo taken of me at a local air show has DH in the background, face on, looking at the camera. Aged 7. I'm 8 years older than him.

CustardyCreams · 13/09/2021 17:57

Shortly after my dad died, my mum lost her diamond engagement ring. She was absolutely heartbroken. She did all the usual things - looked everywhere she could think of, got a plumber to come and check the U bend under the kitchen sink. Nothing. In the end, after weeks of hunting, she tearfully concluded it was lost forever.

A year later, I went to her house on her wedding anniversary so she wouldn’t have to spend it alone, and while I was there I asked to borrow her little grey handbag for a work night out the following week, she said I may as well keep it as she hadn’t used it for years and years, the last time she’d used it was for an evening out with dad, which she reminisced about for a while. Then she grumbled a bit as she remembered the handbag was up in a plastic bag on top of her wardrobe, but she wouldn’t let me go and get it as it was dusty. A few minutes later I heard a wail, and my first panicked thought was my mum had fallen clambering upon a chair to reach.

But no, she was quite safe. There in the bottom of the plastic bag was the lost engagement ring,

To this day, we have no explanation, but my mum remains convinced my dad sent it back to her dad.

OasisOfFerns · 13/09/2021 17:58

Bumped into my childhood neighbour in the middle of Bangkok, about 20 years after I last saw her!

SOLINVICTUS · 13/09/2021 18:00

I went out with a boy who worked in a bar. Above the bar there was a huge mural painting thing with about 100 people in it. It had been painted by the owner's friend. Some of the people are real (like my boy etc) and are in modern clothes. The others are dressed for a medieval fete kind of thing. I am painted next to my boy. It's me, hair, face, clothes, height.
Except "I" am one of the non-real characters and when it was painted I was in the UK and had never set foot in the town in another country where the bar, the boy and the painting were.

TrevorWithTheWeather · 13/09/2021 18:04

My FIL (who lives 50 miles away) met his now DP on a trip to Scotland (we're in Wales). When he told us about meeting this lady, laughed about how she lived in the town we live in, so I asked her name, and it happened that I worked with her at the time!

DHs family had a caravan across the road from the house I grew up in. So we may have seen each other at some point before we ever knew one another existed.

Sunshinealligator · 13/09/2021 18:16

I lived in a flat, the houses opposite would often have this red sports car parked outside.
My sister used to look out of the window and say she would marry the owner of that car. She loved it.
I said no, no, no he's probably a massive geek. She said she didn't care, for that car she would accept anyone.

We would often laugh about it, that bloody car... I couldn't see her interest but anyway.

I move, forget about the car that my sister froths over.

And I meet my now husband who drove a van at the time. About 6 months into our relationship he's showing me photos of his old car. His pride and joy. I tell him that's similar to one my sister loved, it turns out it was his car.

I told my sister. She went, oh no.... I could have accepted a lot for that car, but you really are geeky! Grin

Stovetopespresso · 13/09/2021 18:26

@magicstar1

Back in the 60's my grandmother was walking in the snow and saw 2 men shivering outside a shop. She talked to them and they'd come over from Ireland to see a football match but couldn't get tickets. She brought them home, the whole family had a great night of food, drink and laughter, and they went home the next day on the ferry. Forward to the 80's and my mother is living in Ireland. She was working early shifts and arranged a lift with some of the security guards from the hospital. On the first morning she got in the car, and started chatting. A man said "oh you're from Liverpool", and proceeded to tell her all about the wonderful time he'd had there when he and his friend missed the match and a lovely lady took them home to her family. He couldn't believe it when she told him that was her mother.
aah gorgeous story!
RamonaFlowers1 · 13/09/2021 18:32

I met up with a friend for some drinks a few months ago. She was in the pub with a few people she knew, I hadn't met any of them before but they were happy for me to join them.

One guy in the group turned out to live almost across the road from me (his flat is opposite the junction of my street). We got talking about the snowfall a few months previously and how he'd seen a BMW get stuck in the snow on my street, and that he'd watched a few people trying to help by pushing the car, digging snow out of the way etc. I was one of those people.

Anyway, we got on so well that night and became a couple, and it turns out I work with some people he was at school with! We've also lived literally 2 minutes away from each other for the last two years and to our knowledge never bumped into each other in all that time. Not huge coincidences compared with other posters but we like our story!

TracyLords · 13/09/2021 18:34

Walking along the street and my dog pulls the lead to go and see a woman in her garden. I’m mortified but the woman gives her a wee treat. My dog starts moving stones with her paw and the woman says “oh my goodness”. My dog had just dug up her ring that had been missing since the 90s. My dog gets a treat every time we pass this lady’s house now

Brollypackedforscottishholiday · 13/09/2021 18:37

My dil's dm bought her a private plate. She crashed her car and it was past saving. Her dm bought her a new car... New ref was 1 digit away from her private plate ref!!

Marmite27 · 13/09/2021 18:40

I’ve got a photo of me on a beach in Cornwall when I’m 9 with my DH’s family in the background.

We didn’t know each other until we were 24.

My mum also stopped at a car crash site to give first aid (Dr) and it turned out to be my SIL’s new boyfriend which she only found out after the fact when she was talking to me about that I was upto that evening. Dinner had been cancelled because they were feeling ropey due to the crash.

We reckon there’s a reason our 3 families are meant to be in each other’s lives!

PullMeInToTheScreen · 13/09/2021 18:44

I've got tons of these, like the photo one (two sets of friends, one in background of other's photo, they'd never met and were miles away from home towns) and I've bumped into countless people I know abroad or in other cities.

The latest one is a little outing but it involved me googling three words from a news story plus location to get a Google result relating to something entirely separate that I'd been involved in writing for work decades ago. Hadn't ever looked it up online before.