Crazy coincidence

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!

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.

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.

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!

We once booked a holiday to a Hotel near Volendam, Holland, and found that my husband’s ex brother in law was staying nearby in the same village. He was a German National and spoke very little English, and I did not speak German, so felt very awkward when this man wanted to ‘catch up’ on his family news with my husband who spoke fluent German!

To be honest, he was friendly enough, but it did rather spoil our holiday, as this man still considered himself as part of the family, and had suggested that he would love to come over to visit us back in the UK.
Thankfully we moved house the following year to an address some distance away, and unknown to my Husbands ex wife, We never returned to that part of Europe ever again, bought a Touring caravan, and enjoyed our holidays and breaks in more quiet peaceful areas, then onto smaller ship cruises after my Husband retired.

About six years ago my friend and I were on holiday in Santa Susanna Spain and bumped into a group of girls from Blairgowrie, where we lived in the 70/80s. Three years ago we were in Crete and bumped into the same group of girls. After Covid who knows, maybe be lucky enough to bump into them again.

MissAdventure (from your post at 11.16) - I'm intrigued! Could you contact the other person to ask if she'd allow you to share the story?

Years ago we were staying in a small hotel in Wales, one other couple in the dining room and the waitress put us together so we could chat. Having gone through all the usual bits about our day we got round to where we lived. It turned out they lived round the corner from us, the waitress was very mystified that we didn't know one another.

Stayed in Paris one year and heard a Durham accent. Turned out to be our old next door neighbour, who was working in Saudi, but meeting clients who were staying in our Hotel.

When I was a teenager, on holiday abroad with my parents, on two separate occasions several years apart, I bumped into girls from my school. One of them had actually left and gone to live abroad, but not in the country where I bumped into her! This year, during lockdown, some friends of ours had gone to stay in their flat in Spain and couldn’t get home because of the lockdown rules. They were stuck there for a couple of months and met someone, at a socially-distanced get-together at someone’s house, who had been at university with me!

On the way to Sicily many years ago, we had to change at Pisa — just a couple of huts in those days. I had been chatting on the plane to an older couple, nervous first time flyers. They were anxious about the travelling so, husband suggested he go ahead with their hand luggage while I walked behind with the couple and helped with their travel documents.

When we got into the building, there was husband being hugged by a very attractive young woman. It turned out that, years before she had moved to Italy, she had lived next door to my husband. The elderly couple was her parents on their way to visit her.

I have run into people I know several times while on holiday abroad.
While on holiday in the Tenby area I was looking around a small art gallery and began chatting to the lady in charge. I remarked that my neighbour had the same surname as the artist. She asked where I lived, then said, “Oh, he’s my husband’s Uncle David!”

In 1963 my parents bought a house in London, us kids found a number of articles 'lost' by the previous owners' son marked the initials, JK. In 1982 when I was living in Jerusalem, JK became my husband's boss!

So many coincidences - we are always saying what a small world it is. Just a few:

Was introduced to a new cycling group four years ago by my brother. Got talking to one of the other cyclists - turned out he had lost sight in an eye when I lost an eye and we were under the same consultant at the same time in the same hospital four years before. Then turned out we had very similar histories, and timing in our lives, talked for five hours constantly and haven’t stopped since. He’s been my OH now for four years and couldn’t be happier. When we joined on Facebook turned out we had 32 friends in common but just had never met before then!

Recently taken ill ended up in an ambulance. the paramedic Was chatting away and asked what I did for work - said and he said that I might know one of his friends - I did - I was just considering him in fact for a new role with us that he had applied for - so was able to get a personal reference whilst on board! It was a very good reference.

Waiting in a plane queue a few years ago helped a young couple with a baby as they were struggling. Got talking, found they lived not far from us. A few days later ordered a takeaway and the delivery man was the man from the queue.

When I got married (since divorced) found out the wedding after me was someone I worked with when we got in touch about flowers. Lost touch a couple of times then each time bumped into her randomly - last time in London on a rare trip up by train at Liverpool St Station! Turns out she now lives only a few miles away in a village we often cycle to, even though our original homes where we married were a long distance away.

Rode over to Mersea Island recently and were sitting on the grass eating a small picnic. A man walked past, turned said hello and it turned out it was someone my OH served with 28 years before!

Whenever my dsis and I went out no matter how near or far we usually chanced to meet a couple from our church. So much so that they always looked out for us and were quite disappointed if they didn’t see us.

When our children were teenagers we went on holiday to Lanzarote. We chatted a few times to a family with 2 daughters of a similar age. The following year that family were the first people we saw when we checked in to our hotel in Jamaica! Future holiday plans had never been discussed.

Someone I know who had been fostered as a child/teen decided he would like to meet his real dad, who was from Barbados.
He saved money, booked a flight, and ended up in a crummy guesthouse as it was all he could afford, and he hadn't put any plans in place apart from going to Barbados. (He was just an angst ridden teen, still)

On his first day after arriving, he went into a corner shop, and asked if anyone knew a man called ----.
The other customer said "Yes, that's my brother, he lives just up the road, we've been expecting to see you one day".

We moved to a town 15 miles away. My DD who was 9 at the time wasn't happy as she didn't want to leave her friends. At school one day she was upset and when she told her teacher why, her teacher asked where she was moving to. When she told her she said she used to live in that town. She asked what road and when my DD told her she said that was the road I lived in. What number? Unbelievably, it was the same house.

This happen to me. I was miles away from home on a holiday in wales with my husband and we went to watch a show I could not believe me eyes when my brother and sister in law were sitting near us ! We didn’t tell anyone we were going on holiday

I worked for a short while in a bank call centre part time. Whilst taking a call, the caller had the same unusual old English name as my maiden name, had the same unusual Avenue name where I grow up [but different area] & once I ended the call, I discovered that the house number was the same! Dah,dah,dah,dah!!!

I do like these stories.

I was in a lift in New York with my parents and someone said, hi!

It was our family doctor.

My Uncle was a doctor and in the early days of his career he did some research into Malaria in I think it was Kenya. He was in the African Bush somewhere when one of his 'entourage' came running up to say that there was 'a white man coming'. He arranged for some tea or whatever to be made and the two of them began chatting .... after a few minutes my Uncle asked his new friend how his sister Susan was - turns out he had dated Susan several years ago and they came from the same small town in South Yorkshire!

My Dad always met someone abroad, I remember getting off a plane in LA and talking to some chap he knew from somewhere.

My most amazing coincidence though was on that same holiday we flew to LA for my Uncle's Stepdaughters wedding which was magnificent (lots of money spent as the family were what would have been Hawaiian Royal Family had they still had one, one of the sisters was an ex Miss World and the director of Hawaii Five O was on the guest list .....another world!) Anyway we did the wedding and then drove up the Pacific Coast Highway up to Vancouver Island where my Uncle lived. We stayed at the house of one of the relatives in LA, and they had a library - wall to wall books and magazines. There was a small oile of mags on a side table so I picked up the one on the top - it was Time Magazine. I flicked through it and there was a picture that I instantly recognised, it was my school hall! Read the article and it was about Education in England and it WAS my school hall! A small Junior School in Doncaster?? Why?? Amazing!

Another one relating to meeting a head-teacher for us too. We were on a dolphin-watching boat during a holiday to the Canaries when our sons were young teenagers. Among the 100 or so people on the boat were my elder son's headmaster with his school secretary who were having an affair at the time. (This was fairly common knowledge!) To make it worst, we bumped into them again a few days later. Son was not particularly happy at the coincidence!

I'm going back around 30 years now, but I had taken my two oldest children to Harrods to see Santa (in those days the experience was incredible with a grotto which was an experience on its own). I was standing in the queue, and the children playing with amazing toys (the elves encouraged this & helped children to play), about an hour in, I turned round, and unbelievably saw my sister, half an hour later and there was my Mum with one of her godchildren, after much sign language and message passing it was decided we would all meet for tea upstairs.

Anyway, at said time up I went with the by now exhausted children to the restaurant, and as I arrived who did we see leaving? My father with his wife and two children!

Dad lived in Bedfordshire, Mum in Oxfordshire, my sister in Hertfordshire and we lived in Devon. None of us had known that the other was coming. Now what was the likelihood that everyone would be there in Harrods on that day?

As an aside I went to visit Santa fifteen years later and what a disappointment, no real grotto magic, a real sense of commercialism, and half a dozen Santa's. Not the same and totally lacking any sense of mystery.

A few years ago I had reason to go into our main town by train which I don't normally do - I was a bit rushed and sat at the nearest seat where a man was sitting opposite who was on the phone. He mentioned the town where I grew up so when he'd finished I asked if that was where he was from as I used to live there? He said he was and where did I live so I told him about the hotel my parents had owned back in the 70's - amazingly he not only knew it he had actually bought it a few years earlier and turned it into flats. We spent the rest of the journey chatting as he drew the changes he'd made to my former home. Coincidentally I was looking on Rightmove a couple of weeks ago and there it was for sale!!