Crazy coincidence

I was at a conference in London many years ago and was seated next to a lady from Botswana. I’d done a course a few years previously and one of the course members had come from Botswana. I mentioned to my conference ‘neighbour’, as you do, that I knew someone from Botswana. It turned out that they’d worked together in the past.
It really is a small world!

My husband and I went to Zanti for a holiday. One evening at a local bar we met a coupleat the next table the man at the next table turned out to be someone my husband had gone to school with and hadn't seen for years.

Went to a local cheese and wine do, which included a quiz night, we were seated in tables of eight for the quiz, the man seated next to my husband was born on exactly the same day/month/year as him.

On a French language course in the Auvergne in deepest France, I joined in a conversation at lunch on music that meant something to us.
The Australian woman of about 60 sitting opposite me pointed out one thing she remembered was the school hymn.... which she thought was not something associated with all schools but had been imprinted on her by its fairly frequent use.
She started to sing....'Oh, this was in Australia?' I asked '
' No, in England before we emigrated some 50 years ago'
' In Lancashire?'
' Yes'
' the Fylde coast'
'Yes'
'Now thank we all our God' was the school hymn I remembered very well from my school days
... and then the former name of my companion who had been in the year below.

We were in a b&b near Newcastle and got talking to another couple at breakfast who were there on holiday from Australia. As we chatted they told us they were next off to visit an old aunt at a town near where we live and where our children went to school. My husband said his cousin had been headteacher at the school and believe it or not the cousin of one of this couple (can’t remember if it was the husband or wife) was married to the same person. This couple were only in the UK for six weeks we could not believe the coincidence!

Now that is incredible coast!!

When we had a boat we tied up at a tiny highland village. I sat at a table with an elderly couple. He asked where I was from. I said it’s very small you won’t have heard of it. Try me he says. Thorntonhall I said. He laughed and said he was brought up there. I said we were in the Ravenscourt flats. He said he was brought up in the mansion that was there before the flats. It was incredible.

We went on a tour of the Eastern Europe and got talking to a couple over coffee. She came from 'somewhere no one has heard of' - we live there. And she was born in the house friends now live in. We were able to update her on local info and she told us lots of old info.

My son is a doctor in a large hospital in Wellington, New Zealand. He recently was chatting to one of his patients who told him she was brought up in Wales. It transpired that, as young children, she and her husband had been taught by my mother! They both remembered her well and my son was thrilled to hear stories about his late grandmother!

DS went travelling done years ago, and the last place he visited was Russia, where he stayed with a host family.
When he left them, he was given gifts that included some rather dubious home-made spirits that almost certainly could be a problem at Customs back in England. Nevertheless, they were put in his case, though he chose to wear the clearly Russian teeshirt that they also gave him.

Wearing that teeshirt, not surprisingly he got picked out by customs for a bag search. However, although they didnt know each other, it turned out that the customs officer had been to the same school as him, so after a jolly conversation about that, he wasn't actually searched.
A very fortunate coincidence!

Many years ago we were in Carcassonne with our three teenage daughters and we bumped into girls they had been on a song and dance course with the week before.

Not anything gob-smacking, but years ago, when my daughter was arranging her wedding in Tobago, she used a wedding planner.

I was chatting to a guy at work and mentioned it. He commented that his wifes' best friend had started the same business in Trinidad and - yes! It was the same woman.

A couple of years ago myself and dh were in a club Southport wathcing football .( Rangers v Celtic).
I was talking about my father who was from Glasgow and told dh that Glasgow was my dad`s team.
Then out of the blue an elderly couple sat at a table opposite and the man asked who`s winning.
I said Rangers,and asked if he was a fan,he held up a chain from around his neck which read Rangers.
I told him my father was a Rangers fan and he lived on a certain street and low and behold after a few more words i found out he was my dads sisters neighbour and he knew my dad realy well and told me a few things about him.
I still can`t get over it tbh.

My friend's son was standing at a bus stop in Australia. A young man joined him and said "did you go to college in Belfast?" What are the chances! They were in the same class at college.

My daughter (born in S.Africa) took a teaching post in Portugal. One of the teachers in the same school who became her boyfriend was from my old hometown in England and had taught with my best friends‘ husband in the old hometown. Small world.

Dated a guy rather pleasantly for a few weeks one summer. Went our separate ways abroad and, seven years later, we passed each other on the opposite sides of a street in a big city, both with other parties. A mutual feint recognition occurred as we looked back over our shoulders. Subsequently married. Right time, right place I guess. Always amazes me.

How's this for coincidence, my DDs teacher in Aberdeen went to the same church as myself. We got quite friendly, I was amazed to find out both she and her DH had known my dad, now long since dead. They knew him at university in North Wales!! Then I discovered her great uncle had been founder member of The Welsh National Party along with my great Uncle!! They have now moved to North Wales and we normally visit them when we manage to go there!

I had a wonderful coincidence played out right here on gransnet - one which made a huge impact on me and my grandsons.
I'm desperate to share, but it's also another members coincidence, too.
For her, though

Back in 1988 staying in a deserted hostel in Tasmania (their winter) - running on honesty payments), a young man arrived to photo Fairy Penguins. Turned out he came from same country village in remote area of Shropshire.
Still in Tasmania but now in Hobart met a chap from Telford, Shropshire, and we shared same friends.
The whole of my time in Australia and Tasmania many coincidences happened. Or were they more than coincidences? I think so. Felt very cared for.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

At my nephew's wedding I met my friend - who is the aunt of the bride. One of my children's Facebook friends (we live in Malta) who lives in Australia told him he has a cousin in Malta - who was the boy in the desk near his, in class. I asked the girl who answered the phone in a Government Department that she spoke exactly like my friend, and I gave her name... of course, she was her sister... and so on... One of the most amusing coincidences is that when a friend took me out to lunch, I told her we would never, ever, find parking in the first two towns we mentioned. So we went to a quiet village. She chose the restaurant... and there were my friends having lunch.

PS..I should have said, I was in Newcastle upon Tyne at the time, about 100 miles away!

When I was in hospital after the birth of my son 38 years ago, one of the auxiliary nurses recognised my accent and asked where I was from (small pit village in Yorkshire). Turned out she had been bridesmaid to the mother of my old school friend, and they had lost touch many years previously. I was able to put them back in contact, to the great pleasure of everyone involved.

DH and I went for a special birthday lunch treat on one of the lovely Belmond Pullman trains in Wales. We were on a table for two. On the only table opposite us were a couple from England who we got chatting to. Discovered the husbands best friend was an ex boyfriend of mine from when I lived in Scotland many years before. It is a small world.

I too am a twin and, although I am in the UK and she has lived inNorth America for decades, we still coincidentally buy the same thing on the same day, ( pillows, once!) or have our hair cut, or go to see a film! We’re not identical, by the way. I really believe in coincidences.

I was visiting my doctor son in New Zealand and we stopped at a large restaurant for lunch. He went to order food while I sat at an outside table with 4 chairs. The restaurant was almost completely full. While I was waiting a young man came up and asked if he could share my table. I said "Yes, but I am waiting for my son." We got talking and I found out that he too was a doctor. When my son came back they immediately recognised each as colleagues from the same hospital in England.