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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:
DistressedDamson · 17/09/2021 12:40

This thread is wonderful. Some of the stories give me goosebumps

VeryLongBeeeeep · 17/09/2021 12:46

At a work event in the UK I got chatting to a pleasant guy who lived in California. We had a sporting interest in common, me as a hobby, he as his second job. We chatted on and off throughout the event but once it was over, I didn't really give him much thought and our paths didn't cross through work again.

About a year, maybe 18 months later, I went to the Midwest - my one and only trip to the US to date. On my last day before I flew home, I took my hosts out for lunch at a local restaurant to say thanks for their hospitality. As we were being shown to our table, a man seated at a table we were passing stood up and said "hi Beeeep, great to see you again!". It was the Californian guy who was in this state 1900 miles from his home on business.

TimeThyme · 17/09/2021 12:53

Sharing a flat with my Dsis, she texted me to let me know she was having someone stay over that night (she'd met him at a music festival). Next morning in the kitchen they came in, and it was a guy I had a relationship for a few months in Uni about 10 years previously.

Was a bit weird, took a while to figure of what to say (or not!).

TheLovelinessOfDemons · 17/09/2021 13:03

Bearing in mind that London is a huge city, DH and I were on a night out in Camden, and we bumped into DB, who I hadn't seen since he was about 14!

jewel1968 · 17/09/2021 13:14

A large Irish family in the 20s or 30's decided to give one of their sons to a childless couple in the US (relatives I think). Years later that son was in his 80s and had never had any contact with his birth family. So he travels to Ireland and for some reason my brother is helping him (can't remember why) and they are driving down country lanes of where he thinks his family might be from. All he has is their surname.

So, they stop this farmer walking on the road and ask if he had ever heard of insert surname. Yep, you guessed it. The farmer was the long lost brother.

lifeturnsonadime · 17/09/2021 13:30

@PhoneBoothMadness

I've changed user name for this as it's so specific. And insane.

When I was 19 I worked at an inn / restaurant in a very rural area. I lived in the staff accommodation, which was an old farmhouse a few miles down the road from the inn, and I would walk home after my shift.

One afternoon, I was walking home after finishing work for the day, and a phone booth that was on my route started ringing just as I reached it. This was a year or two before mobiles were ubiquitous, and I thought I'd better answer it in case it was someone in an emergency, or trying to get hold of someone nearby, though there was no-one around.

I picked up and said hello, and was taken aback to hear my friend on the other end immediately start yakking away about the night out we had planned for later. I interrupted her and asked how she knew I was passing the phone booth at that moment (it was the middle of nowhere and she was 15 miles away in the town).

Well, she absolutely lost her shit. She hadn't meant to call the phone booth at all, and she had no idea what my shift time even was, or that I wasn't at home. She had meant to call me, but had unwittingly misdialled, and happened to call the phone booth at the very second I was walking past.

i have a similar story, a friend had to contact me to give me some bad news about a mutual friends death. Pre-mobile phone times. She phoned the phone booth at the bottom of the block of flats that I was living in to try to get a message to me. I happened to be right there at the time the phone rang.
SineOfTheThymes · 17/09/2021 16:11

Late 90s, on a business trip in Asia and stopped off in Hong Kong to visit some old friends there for 2 nights. It was my first time there, we had a lot to drink, toured a number of bars and we ended up in a strip club (only time in my life I've been in one).

I was astounded to find that I recognized a dancer there had been an intern with the company I was working for in UK. I'd met people abroad on holidays and in airports a few times, but never like this. She said after her internship she was on a "wild" trip around the world. LinkedIn shows her still working successfully in tech sector today.

weebarra · 17/09/2021 18:21

I used to regularly go to the same brewery taproom to buy beers when my DSs were at an activity.
Got quite friendly with the guy that worked there until he left for a new job.
Organised a pub quiz for work in a different town, my colleague J brought her new boyfriend - yes it was beer guy. We recognised each other immediately.
They're getting married next month.

yumscrumfatbum · 17/09/2021 18:30

Mine is a bit less exciting than most. A few years ago a neighbour knocked on my door asking if my son and I wanted to join them at the park. My son really didn't like hers so I made a quick excuse up. I told her sorry my Mother in law is coming over later so we would have to give it a miss. A bit later on my Mother in law (who almost never came round) pulled up in her car outside my house just as said neighbour walked past on her way to the park. Weird!

AdoptedBumpkin · 17/09/2021 18:36

The universe was smiling on you @yumscrumfatbum!

annabell22 · 17/09/2021 18:51

In July/August 2018, I rented a car for four weeks prior to emigrating, after having sold my own car. I rented it from a Heathrow depot as I lived near there. In October 2018, I flew back to the UK for a short visit and spent the time in Bath. I was with my dad in his car waiting at a red traffic light when the rental car I'd had drove past on the other side of the road.

Whatadolt · 17/09/2021 20:04

DH and my dad went to Wembley by car in the 1990's to watch our local team.
My older DB went on a coach.
My younger brother was in the army based in Germany.
DH and dad went in a very crowded pub for a pint. Gets to the bar and older DB
was there. Turned around and see younger brother come through the door.
This wasn't arranged.

longtompot · 17/09/2021 20:14

When my dad was working he was chatting to one of the office staff (he was a manual labourer) and they found out they had relatives in common and that they were actually second cousins! They'd spoken lots of times and never realised.

Houseofvelour · 17/09/2021 20:16

I have many many big ones but this is a cute one.

DH and I married on 1.7.17
DC 1 was born a 7.17 am

Hawkins001 · 17/09/2021 20:19

At a wedding and there was a photo taken of a lovely lady, and I was in the background but my head above hers, so it overlapped with her in the front so to speak, at that pointed we had not connected until a couple of years later, certainly one of those mysteries and holy smokes moment.

Hawkins001 · 17/09/2021 20:19

*moment

ThisIsNotAGloveSong · 17/09/2021 20:43

I was at Uni, and walking home as I usually did.. Passed what was a register office and saw the strangest wedding party.. One of them had a full kilt get up on and jumped up and down adjusting himself in a very memorable way.. A year later, in another city, I met that same bloke while working in a bar, and we have been married for 31 years now. It was only a few years later, when after talking, we both realised I had passed him at his brothers wedding. He still adjusts himself in his kilt the same way. Grin

RevolvingPivot · 17/09/2021 21:11

@Zeal

My parents were pretty poor. We lived in a farm cottage and had not much money for furniture and odd Wellington boots. After coming home from a walk in which we got drenched by rain, I slept by the fire and dreamed of finding piles of silver coins in a gateway to a park near my uncle’s town house. He was comparatively well off so I associated the money with him.

Roll forward about a week later and it’s end of school holidays and I’m riding my little bike down a leafy lane. In a gateway someone has dumped a load of mucky magazines, bags and second hand clothes. I look closer and spot the white end of a rolled up bunch of old brown £10 notes, secured with an elastic band. In total there was £221. We took it to the local police station and handed it in. A few weeks later the police drove out to our cottage and said nobody has claimed it so it’s mine. I gave them £10 to put in the police charity, kept £11 for toys and gave my parents £200. This was 1973 and we felt rich.

What a lovely story.
Laladell · 17/09/2021 23:17

When I was about 16 I was at art college and made really good friends with a lad in my class, we always got the bus to and from college together.

He told his mother about me and said my name sounded familiar and thought about it for a few mins and it turned out she was the midwife who delivered me when I was born!

Nearly 29 now and me and the lad are still friends 😊

RevolvingPivot · 17/09/2021 23:24

@Laladell

When I was about 16 I was at art college and made really good friends with a lad in my class, we always got the bus to and from college together.

He told his mother about me and said my name sounded familiar and thought about it for a few mins and it turned out she was the midwife who delivered me when I was born!

Nearly 29 now and me and the lad are still friends 😊

What kind of place to you live that the midwife remembered you and your name and you knew the full name of the midwife? I don't know any of my midwives names and my youngest is 9. It must be a very small village?
ivykaty44 · 17/09/2021 23:28

Sitting in a hostel in Cameron highlands with 4 strangers, the 4 of were all strangers to each other

We all lived within 1/2 mile of each other in a small town i. The Midlands

Had never met before and never since

Laladell · 17/09/2021 23:34

@RevolvingPivot

It was a small town, it was definitely her I asked my mother. My mom had quite a traumatic birth so idk if that made a difference as to her remembering my mom?... I didn't know her name my friend told his mother about me.

I can remember the 2 midwives and my community midwife from when I had my son 😊

Sagaz · 17/09/2021 23:38

@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.
oh wow! that is so lovely :-)
RevolvingPivot · 18/09/2021 08:19

I share a birthday with my brother (and also shared the womb) that's as exciting as it gets for me.

MillicentBulstrode · 18/09/2021 08:48

Name changed for this as it only happened this week.

I do a lot of genealogy and I have been digging into the family history of a friend of my brother's. His grandfather died very young in the 1930s and it's all been a bit of a mystery to him. I eventually requested the medical records from the hospital where he was treated and they arrived this week. My friend has a very uncommon surname. My brother and I have an equally uncommon surname, only a few dozen in the whole of the UK.

The doctor who was treating his grandfather in the hospital had our surname and is a great uncle of ours.

Small world!