Yes, I believe it was a connection to your late friend. I would probably not say anything to the family though at this stage.
Many years ago we lost a work colleague called Kathy to cancer just prior to Christmas. I had not been at the company as long as those who were really close to her but still knew her and she was lovely and we chatted whenever our work paths crossed. A day or two later there was a Christmas card pushed through my letter box from Kathy. I got a real shock and wondered whether it was from her as I didn't, at the time know any Kathy's spelled that way. I relayed my thoughts to her close friends at work and they were quite adamant it would not have been from her, not least because they had not received one. I was unsettled by it and felt a bit awful that I had mentioned it. Well, a good while later, maybe even a year or so, I heard someone call my name in a large department store turned around and saw the assistant at the counter who I recognised from the end of my street as we occasionally used to have a chat. She had moved in the previous months so was updating me on how things were going etc and when I was due to go I said it was lovely having a catchup and rather awkwardly said I was terrible with names to which she prompted me: Kathy.
So much fell in to place at the moment. Sometimes there are reasons things happen a certain way.