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Crazy coincidence

(79 Posts)
granfromafar Wed 07-Oct-20 21:24:29

DH and I went to a nearby town this afternoon as he needed an item from a specialist shop. Having bought said item and after a pleasant walk around the park, we were heading back to the car when I noticed a bus pass on the pavement. It was around school coming-out time so assumed it had been dropped by a pupil. Would not normally pick something up from the pavement in these conditions but on bending down to have a closer look, saw that the photo was of the son of friends of ours and the name matched! These are friends who we don't see more than a couple of times a year, but we get on well when we do meet up. (Husbands used to work together about 20 years ago!) After a couple of calls to the parents, we were able to deliver the lost photo card to their home. It was a bit out of our way but we weren't doing anything else and were relieved that the card and owner could be reunited. He's 15 and did not relish the thought of telling his parents that he'd lost the card, so was extremely grateful.
What are the odds of this happening, especially as we live in neighbouring towns, about 15 miles apart?

lemongrove Wed 07-Oct-20 22:00:40

This sort of thing happens a lot.Some friends of ours were on a train somewhere in Canada, and when they reached the next station, their neighbours from home got on! Neither knew the others were in Canada, or even on holiday.

Tangerine Wed 07-Oct-20 22:11:17

My friend met up with someone she knew on a cruise.

Another friend of mind was at the theatre in New York and, to her amazement, one of her colleagues in the next office was in the audience.

Years ago I saw someone I had been to school with in Edinburgh. Our school was hundreds of miles away from Edinburgh and we were amazed to see each other.

Tangerine Wed 07-Oct-20 22:12:50

It must have been wonderful to re-unite the bus pass with the owner and it will be a talking point for quite some time.

It will add something to your friendship.

Hetty58 Wed 07-Oct-20 22:18:27

My grandson was taken abroad on a week's holiday in term time. Because it's not really 'allowed' he was 'off sick'.

A few days later, he met a classmate there - also 'sick'!

granfromafar Wed 07-Oct-20 22:27:45

These are all really spooky.
Tangerine- yes, DH will happily retell this story many times in the months and years to come and I will be sick of hearing it!?

LauraNorder Wed 07-Oct-20 22:34:19

I do love these coincidences or fate, whatever.
Glad the bus pass found it's rightful owner and kept him out of trouble.
Love your story Hetty, so funny.
My old school friend has lived in Australia for forty years, she comes to the UK every ten years or so and stays with us. Last year she told me her niece who lives in Adelaide was to marry a boy from Holyhead who she met on holiday in Italy. Turned out he was an old school friend of our eldest two sons.
When eldest son was doing his gap year he met up with some lads from Birkenhead, turned out they were at college with our nephew.
Biggest one of all, a friend of my mother who moved to Nice in 1969 invited my parents to their home, turned out to be the house previously owned by my great grandparents where my mother had spent many happy holidays.

BlueBelle Wed 07-Oct-20 23:09:59

I live in the east of U.K. and some years back booked a holiday in the west Cornwall about as far away as you can get in U.K. I found the b and b on line It was cheap and on a bus route, so fitted in well
After a few days I came down to breakfast and got talking to the owner During conversation I said that’s not a Cornish accent he said he came from a town nobodies ever heard of it turns out he came from about a mile from my house

Aldom Thu 08-Oct-20 08:47:20

About 14 years ago I sold my house to a doctor moving from a city 100 miles away. I remained in the same town as my former home. As it happened my daughter lived in the same city as the couple who bought my house, but did not know them. One day, after the sale, my daughter had coffee with her friend, also a doctor. The friend had been away for the weekend, visiting friends in their new home. She showed photos of the garden to my daughter, who immediately recognised it as my former home and garden.

FannyCornforth Thu 08-Oct-20 08:57:15

We bumped into the landlady of a pub we go to in Ashbourne - in Goa!
It really did my head in.

MellowYellow Thu 08-Oct-20 08:59:14

I've posted this before but I still like it! My boss at the travel agents (years ago) was on a jolly to Hong Kong and in the middle of the city bumped into the owner of our local Chinese restaurant, where we regularly ate as an office group, who was visiting his family.

Susan56 Thu 08-Oct-20 09:10:31

Years ago while on holiday with mum in Devon we took a trip to Clovelly.After a long and steep walk we sat on a bench before attempting the walk back only to find we were sitting next to the couple who ran the post office in mum’s village.

Bathsheba Thu 08-Oct-20 09:10:48

A friend of mine was retiring and training up her successor, who had recently moved to the area. Turned out the successor had bought the same house that my friend had lived in around 10 years previously. And as if that wasn't enough, the new employee's son was at the same school and in the same class as my friend's grandson!

Hetty58 Thu 08-Oct-20 09:15:09

Another one! My eldest lives in NZ. He met a lovely girl there, now his partner. Not only is she from the UK (like us) but she's from a place less than two miles from here!

Oldwoman70 Thu 08-Oct-20 09:40:16

Whenever DH and I went on holiday we would always bump into someone he knew - sometimes in a cafe, on a street and once in a very crowded airport.

lovebeigecardigans1955 Thu 08-Oct-20 09:54:24

Not sure if this counts. My twin sister and I are chalk and cheese with very different tastes in almost everything - books, music, clothes etc. We went shopping separately and having returned home we compared our purchases. We'd bought identical pairs of shoes in exactly the same style and colour.

sue01 Thu 08-Oct-20 10:00:16

We went up to Hadrians Wall, and out of the blue, bumped into a former neighbour, who left Northants when she divorced.

She said how much she would like to contact another neighbour, who had helped her at the time... but who I didn't know.

A week later, back in Northants, I went to a Seminar on the First World War... sat down at random next to a chap I'd never met... and guess what ??

He turned out to be the neighbour she wanted to thank !!

Helen2806 Thu 08-Oct-20 10:01:17

A very good friend of mine from Sussex was emailing a guy in Scotland. She broke of the friendship as it wasn’t going anywhere. While on holiday in Scotland she bumped into a man in a bar and they got chatting, and guess what ???
They have now been happily married for 10 years.

4allweknow Thu 08-Oct-20 10:01:18

I was in Thailand visiting DS who was working there. Out for the day he met a friend from Uni. This lad was French, had gone back to France on obtaining degree, then emigrated to Australia but was on holiday in Thailand. They were both flummoxed at how they had met in Thailand.

Borrheid55 Thu 08-Oct-20 10:05:10

Many years ago, we were on holiday in Scotland ( we lived in London at the time) and bumped into my best friend from school in a tiny village in the Highlands. She had moved to Spain after uni and we had lost touch. What were the chances? Marydoll you know who it was!

TillyWhiz Thu 08-Oct-20 10:12:21

Coincidences! My DH and I were on a D Day Landings coach tour and were walking down a street in one French town tucking into some enormous ham and cheese baguettes from a boulangerie as the coach company took us to some dire restaurants. I was glad I knew no-one when suddenly someone called my DH's name. Turning round we saw 4 cyclists - firemen from our local fire station who were on a sponsored cycle trip!

TanaMa Thu 08-Oct-20 10:13:07

When my DH was alive and we were on holiday in British Columbia Canada, he went to play a round of golf. Afterwards we popped into the restaurant on site only to be served by a couple from a South Wales village near where we lived.

Grandmabeach Thu 08-Oct-20 10:13:43

Went on holiday to Sweden and stopped to look at some jewelry at a craft fair. When the stall holder spoke I said "That's not a Swedish accent". Turned out he was born less than 10 miles from me. Another time I got talking to a couple over breakfast at a B&B. They asked where we were from, Dorset, so I asked where they were from. When they replied Hertfordshire I asked them where. You will not know it they replied it is only a small village. I knew it well as my grandparents used to live there. A few more questions and I was able to tell them the name of their nearest pub and that the development they lived on was given it's name as my great grandfather owned the land.

DaisyL Thu 08-Oct-20 10:14:11

About 50 years ago on holiday in the Canary Islands I sat next to a man in the bar who I discovered had been born in the same small nursing home as me in Dundee and in the same year.

marionk Thu 08-Oct-20 10:14:28

My coincidence also happened in Scotland. I was way up in the Highlands with my parents on holiday, we were driving back along a single track road that led only to a small village, my father pulled over to let an oncoming car pass - the occupants included my school headmistress