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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Weird coincidences. Please shate yours.

353 replies

malificent7 · 20/08/2024 22:09

I find it really strange that the codefendant of the tech billionaire that is missing from the yacht in Sicily was killed in a road accident on the same day in a different country. Two totally different accidents. Both were aquiited of fraud and involved in the same case. Totally bizarre.

On a more personsl note a met someone from my year at school at a remote waterfall in Nepal about 20 years ago.

Please share your stories.

OP posts:
EI12 · 21/08/2024 07:21

I recommend John le Carre. Never believed in coincidences like that before, but after reading him, well... (Coincidences of the sort - oh, my husband and I went to the same holiday spot when children I entertain).

NOTANUM · 21/08/2024 07:21

My dad phoned a landline wanting to talk to a man with a not very common name to discuss business. After a while, they realised my dad had misdialed and had by coincidence phoned a man of the same name and profession in a completely different part of the country.
They had a great chat anyhow and spoke for an hour.

2chocolateoranges · 21/08/2024 07:22

We have met my dhs childhood neighbour on 3 different holidays. One at the top of the Eiffel Tower!

rentersleaf · 21/08/2024 07:25

"Thats not possible youd have to be born at the exact same time and place "

I think the op just meant the two mums are born in October and are libras etc

MrsZlatan · 21/08/2024 07:26

I had a boyfriend once whose parents had the exact same birthdays as my parents, the right way round - mum-mum dad-dad.

my current partners birthday is the same as my dads birthday and my birthday is the day my partners father died.

I think that’s really weird!!!

Peaceandquietandacuppa · 21/08/2024 07:28

NotaCoolMum · 20/08/2024 23:35

I’ve got a GREAT ONE!!!!

10 years ago my DS best friends grandma and I were good friends from seeing eachother at school pick-up and drop offs etc. she went on holiday to another country where her and her husbands best friends live (the best friends introduced them in fact). When she returned she said “NotaCoolMum- I need to talk to you…. We were sitting around best friends fire place drinking wine and talking about our children and grandkids etc… Best friend (male” said he has a photo album of his DS and DD and brought it out- my friend opened the album and yelled- “Oh my god!! That’s NotaCoolMum!!”. Turns out she is best friends with my bio dad who left when I was 3. I saw him a couple of times in my young adult life. But haven’t seen him in almost 25 years now!

That would make me feel very differently about my friend…. In 25 years she didn’t know he had a kid?? And he abandoned them at 3?

BlingaRinga · 21/08/2024 07:29

This is my favourite as though it’s fairly inconsequential it involved quite a series of coincidences.

This was about 30 years ago pre the digital age where if you wanted to listen to music by a particular artist you had to physically buy a CD.

i was getting ready for the day at sixth form and unusually I had put the radio on while getting dressed. I heard a song from a band I’d heard a few times before and I idly thought “I should buy one of their albums. They’ve been around for a while, I wonder if they have a greatest hits?”.

Roll on lunch break at school and one of my friends said she was going to the second hand record store to buy a present - I said I would tag along. I’d gone to sixth form in a small town some distance from my own and had no idea it even had a record store - it turned out to be a small independent shop tucked down a back street, you wouldn’t know it was there unless you were looking for it.

As we were walking down there I remembered I had £20 in my bag because someone had paid me back for a trip we’d made a few weeks previous. At this age I didn’t carry a bank card and usually carried no money at all to school except a couple of quid to buy chips on Fridays. To have enough money on me to buy an album was very, very unusual indeed, perhaps the only time I happened.

So at the record shop with £20 in hand, I went to look to see if they had any albums by the band I’d heard on the radio that same morning. And yes, they did have a greatest hits album on the shelf!

I took it to the counter and the owner said “ha well that’s a coincidence I only put that out this morning!”

I loved that album and still love the band 30 years later, and still think about that string of coincidences that led me to love them every time I hear them.

itsgettingweird · 21/08/2024 07:31

Newbie I'm not sure why because it's a lovely story but that bought a year to my eye.

Freysimo · 21/08/2024 07:35

Goldenboysmum · 21/08/2024 07:20

When my son died, he was living in Australia.

He ended his life on Christmas Day 2020.

Shortly after i was trying to "piece things together" (so many unanswered questions) and trying to find out if there was any Sydney newspaper articles about him (there wasn't) but I found an obituary for someone in Cuba, Missouri, who had the same name as my my son, and also ended his life on Christmas day 2020.

I'm sorry about your son and I hope you found some answers.

HideousKinky · 21/08/2024 07:35

I used to live in Singapore where I had a good friend who sadly I lost touch with when I left as she moved at more or less the same time. I heard through other friends that some very sad things had happened to her since - both her husband and one of her sons had died, but no-one was able to put me back in touch with her.

Several years later I was just about to leave the house to attend an outdoor event when a message came that it had been cancelled because of rain. I felt slightly thrown as plans for the day were now altered, so wandered into the living room thinking about how to reorganise my day and I did something I literally NEVER do in daytime - I picked up the remote and put on the TV.....

And there in the middle of the screen on a morning TV chat show was this friend, looking very sad & tearful, taking part in a discussion about bereavement and the loss of her husband & son.

(The TV was also on a channel I never watch)

If it hadn't rained
If the event hadn't been called off
If I hadn't broken the habit of a lifetime and tuned on daytime TV
If it hadn't been tuned to that channel

I would not have seen her, but I did and that enabled me to contact the programme and get back in touch with her

BlingaRinga · 21/08/2024 07:40

Newbie8918 · 21/08/2024 06:38

Oooh just thought of another.

The house that I live in now (our dream house. V old and a do er upper) had a serious of coincidences which led us to buy it.

It's on a street that we used to drive down daily. It's one of 8 but they never go up for sale. When we'd drive past, DH used to ask 'which one do you want babe?' And I'd always reply 'that one'. (Our house)

One evening, my friend told me she'd put her house up for sale. I searched for it to show DH and the search returned THE HOUSE. No for sale sign outside. Been listed that day.

We weren't prepared to buy/sell but went to look anyway and clicked with the owner. We put in an offer and the estate agent refused immediately as our house was not under offer. She passed it on to the buyer regardless (legally had to) and they told her that no one else was getting this house other than us, so accept it. She said 'the house was singing with them in it.'

We put our house up for sale the next day. Our agent called us and said she had a lady on a waiting list for our street and asked if she could view the same day, even before it was listed or photographed. She made an offer immediately and it sold.

We exchanged 8 weeks later and when we moved in, it transpired that our seller had the same birthday as me, so every alarm code, key box code, gate pin, was my DOB.

That’s not a coincidence, that’s fate!

Canalboat · 21/08/2024 07:41

DH bought a book from a second hand book shop. I noticed it had an inscription in the front which was written by my dad to my brother, no question it was Dads handwriting and db’s name. DB had sold the book at a car boot sale several years earlier across the other side of the country.

MushMonster · 21/08/2024 07:41

Truffeo · 21/08/2024 03:11

Back in the 90's, pre mobile phones, I was walking past a big bank of public telephones, when one started ringing. I hardly ever picked the receiver up when this happened, but I did on this occasion.

It was a friend, trying to get hold of me urgently. They'd either misdialled or misremembered my number (I can't remember) but somehow, incredibly, managed to reach me in the middle of town, as I randomly walked past the very telephone they'd managed to accidentally call.

This is so good!
I have been stuck in the middle of town, at times, and just happened to bump into my father/ cousin/ aunty... so they could drive me home. 15 minutes up the mountain! I was there because something was cancelled, missed the bus... and they were just shopping or whatever. We are only 12 households in the village I lived in. They rarely go to this town and it is not tiny. Yet, I was so lucky!I would have to wait around for hours till the schedulled pick up time.
They had no phone at home or mobiles at that time.

GreenShady · 21/08/2024 07:46

A not very amazing coincidence but a very heartwarming one...in a new job I had about 10 years ago, I was sitting next to my very lovely manager and for some reason talking about my godfather, who I was very fond of, and who gave me away at my wedding. He was a University professor.

You can see where this is going - she went to that University, she took that subject and yes, she had lectures and tutorials with him!! 🤣

He was retired at the time we were talking about him so this was going back some years. And we were not working in a related field 🤣

She also had very fond memories of him, said he was her favourite lecturer, which doesn't surprise me because he was a very kind and funny man as well as being brilliant.

It was so heartwarming and lovely 🥰

Tortiemiaw · 21/08/2024 07:47

Always thought this is quite a nice one. My maternal granny had my mum at age 26, my sister had my nephew at 26, I had my eldest daughter at 26.. and she had her first child at 26! My other two are determined not to keep this going 😀

pumpkinpiee · 21/08/2024 07:49

A few years ago DH and I went away to London (150 miles away from where we live for context) for the weekend and ended up in a random pub/club where we surprisingly had a really fun but very drunken night out! We happened to see a lesser known (at the time - has been on a prime time BBC show since which has boosted their status) celebrity who was absolutely off their face and ended up getting kicked out of this pub.

A week later (back at home) I went for a meal with my friends in a local restaurant. The restaurant is a personal favourite of ours but not particularly well known, it’s a hidden gem on the outskirts of the city. I was telling my friend about our night out the previous weekend and mentioned spotting the celebrity as I knew she was a fan, when I turned around and the very celebrity we were talking about walked into the restaurant with a friend! Just to also mention that the celebrity is well known for being from another city, so for her to walk in at that exact moment as we were speaking about her was bizarre!!

To my embarrassment, my friend actually went over and told her about my story and she came and introduced herself. She was really lovely and we laughed about it and she explained she was staying at a friend’s flat opposite the restaurant so thought she’d give it a try.

I still find this coincidence very weird to this day. As above, she has recently appeared on a BBC show so at least when I tell the story now most people actually know who I’m talking about!

Wheelz46 · 21/08/2024 07:50

Oh I have another one, when a member of family moved house, some stuff was left in the loft.

There were some young adult books and written inside the book was a kids name with their address on it (not the address where our family member moved into but our address where we lived at the time).

Cattyisbatty · 21/08/2024 07:50

My dh plays a sport locally. He was telling me that he’d been playing with an older woman who was really good for her age (he put her at late 60s). I didn’t think much about it, but a few weeks went past and he said she’d invited him/us to something (being vague as a bit outing) and when I looked up the event it transpires that the ‘random’ woman is our friend’s mum 🤦‍♀️ - well my friend’s husband’s mum but we have all socialised together many a time!
And she’s not late 60s, she’s early 80s!!

BunnyLake · 21/08/2024 07:51

It’s nothing woo or exciting but my son has a quite unusual name (only ten registered that year). I was in a cafe with him when another family came and sat down at the table next to us. We started chatting as we had young babies, I asked their baby son’s name and it was the same as ours!

CheekySwan · 21/08/2024 07:55

me and my now ex husband (DS dad) had the exact same tattoo in exactly the same place we both got 10 years before we met, we think it was within days of each other, at the same place

Ohfuckwhatdoidonow · 21/08/2024 07:56

I guess maybe when we went to the states in 2022, DS was up at 6 every morning, ex took him to dunkin doughnuts so teen DD could stay asleep and he would get coffee and DS would have a bottle.
On what must've been the 10th day, I went along. A man says. Where are you from? I know England. I wonder if you're from the North.
No, I said, I explained where we were from, oh he says, it's just that my grandfather fought in the war, and the fighter jet he flew is in an airbase museum in the North of England.
Sort of listened and said we weren't in the North but that was cool. He planned on going to see it.

Only turned out that it wasn't up north, the air museum he was talking about is approximately 5 miles from our home.

What is also strange was he had seen ex and DS a few of those mornings but never spoke to them before, just that day

Fathercrispness · 21/08/2024 07:57

I had an unplanned pregnancy and was terrified to tell my friend who had been trying for a baby for years and had suffered a miscarriage recently. Turned out she was pregnant too and we had the same due date! Our babies were born one day apart and 8 years later are friends too.

CheekySwan · 21/08/2024 07:57

I had my 1st DS on my birthday. my original due date was 25th Oct - as was my mums with me - he arrived 9th Nov - my 27th birthday, despite being induced on 5th Nov - he held out for my birthday

OssieShowman · 21/08/2024 07:58

2 different friends, visiting America at same time.
Not friends themselves, just knew each other vaguely through us.
One was travelling via Canada. The other was travelling via Texas,
bumped into each other in a restaurant in LA

newnamethanks · 21/08/2024 08:02

I worked in the London office of a company with various other branches. The Director for the Northern area came down from Glasgow for a meeting, we were chatting, he'd just bought a new house in a northern town to move closer to London. 'Oh' said director for South East, 'I grew up there, know it well, where are you living?'. Same town. Same house. Odd.

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