Strange Coincidence!!

[murray607]

I just wonder if anyone else has had an amazing coincidence like this.

A couple of weeks back, my wife answered the front door bell. A neatly dressed young man with a strong accent greeted my wife, showed his ID and said he was from our Utilities Company, following up to ask us if we would like to harmonize our Electric and Gas on to one bill.

My wife noted a strong brogue in his accent and asked where he was from. "Edinburgh, Scotland" was the response. That's a coincidence says she, "my husband is also from Scotland, originally". He asks where and she says Macduff, near Aberdeen. Says he, "I have a great uncle living there by the name of George S. My wife (a Canadian) thought, hmm that sounds familiar, I will ask my husband if he knows him." So later, she calls me. "Do you know George S.?" "Indeed I do, he is my mothers 1st cousin."

So she says he only left here a few minutes ago, I've got to find him and tell him he is related to you! Alas, she didn't find him.

I told my son about the experience (he lives in the same town as us) and described the relationship and that this young man is a distant cousin.

A week later, the same young man shows up at my son's home. My son says, "I believe we are cousins". Of course, there was the initial look of astonishment, then they got chatting. So, I happened to call my son just as the two were chatting and spoke to our new found cousin. We talked about his grandparents and great grandparents, his great uncles, great aunts etc. all of whom I know well. We are even in regular contact with a great aunt of his, who lives in Ireland.

So, I still haven't met the young man myself, but we have booked a weekend in Calgary, Alberta where he and his sister (yes another cousin) are living and meet them both and perhaps take them out for dinner.

We find it unbelievable that we have a blood relative from 7,000 miles away, just show up on our door step. What are the chances?

Then in my head I was thinking of Bogart saying " Of all the gin joints, in all the towns in the world..........." Only this was a better outcome !

Needless to say, I bought a lottery ticket as I thought I was on a roll...................but no luck lol

Anyone else had a similar experience? Like to tell us about it?

[quirky3]

Sounds like more than just "Six Degrees of Separation"!

[oldyeller]

Yep, some of this stuff is unbelievable! We were in NY NY with my brother and his wife who live in California. My brother needed to buy some shorts so we ducked into Macy's. Men's dept. was in the basement. My sister in law bumps into a gal she volunteers with back in California. Two people from the most populous state in the country meet by chance in the most populous city in the country in the basement of Macy's! Unbelievable!!! I have a couple of others but I have to go, tee time.

[bkcunningham1]

We have a family friend from Virginia who was at a national teachers' conference in some random state and met a woman from Hutchinson, Kansas. The two women started talking and it turned out to be the great-great-granddaughter of my grandfather's only sister. She knew she had family in Virginia but didn't know how to contact any of us. Our dear friend put us in touch and my dad sent her family photos of her grandparents and great-grandparents and written history. It is a small world.

[murray607]

Sounds like more than just "Six Degrees of Separation"!

Oh yes, the "friend of a friend" theory. I have been down that road before and had a couple interesting link-ups.

[casita37]

I was in a pub, in London, when I heard my name called across the room. It was a friend from FL.

Also, more in line with the OP's event, while working at a hotel in FL, I was attending the manager's welcome hour for the guests and struck up a conversation with one of the guests. After a little conversation, and much amazement, we discovered we were first cousins. Hadn't seen each other for 33 years.

[murray607]

I was in a pub, in London, when I heard my name called across the room. It was a friend from FL.

Also, more in line with the OP's event, while working at a hotel in FL, I was attending the manager's welcome hour for the guests and struck up a conversation with one of the guests. After a little conversation, and much amazement, we discovered we were first cousins. Hadn't seen each other for 33 years.

A similar experience to ours for sure. I wonder what the odds are of this happening? I figured with just over 5 million in Scotland and 3.5 million in Alberta, the odds in my case are defintely 1 in several millions. Probably the same in your case too.

[buggyone]

My sister from Clermont was visiting us one afternoon and went to The Purple Pig at Lake Sumter Landing. She was recognized by a friend of hers in the store she had not seen for 12 years when the two of them had both lived in Belgium. The friend, also, was just visiting a friend for the day.

Very strange how these things happen.

[Happinow]

When we moved here from upstate NY, I figured we would never run into anyone we know. But, I was shopping in Publix one day and a lady looked familiar to me. I walked up to her and asked if she was so and so and she said yet. As it turned out she was my daughter's middle school assistant principal.

Then when we first moved here we had met some people on this site and as we got talking they lady said she was from the same town we were from and I told her I had a daughter who went to a certain high school and she said she was her class advisor. Plus, our new neighbors who are two doors down are from a town that was about 20 minutes from us, which we visited frequently.

So, it really is a small world out there!

[Bavarian]

Probably more, but most don't think to ask.

[swrinfla]

My traveling companion and good friend has been a Villager now for almost 3 months. She was born in western New York State. So, she went a meeting of the appropriate Villages club.

At the check-in desk, she identified herself as having come from a certain town. The lady at the check-in said "I went to the high school there for 2 semesters. The only thing I remember about it is that everyone kept talking about one [individual's name]."

Of course, my friend was that individual!

To top off this small world discussion, my friend happened across two other people within the same week who had also grown up in the same small town!

Isn't stuff like that amazing?

SWR
:beer3:

[bestmickey]

It was 1972. Five of us girls (from upstate NY) rented a BIG canvas tent, to go camping in Cape Cod. Luckily, five guys pulled into the site next to us (luckily, because we had no idea how to put up that large tent). The guys put it up for us. Nice group, visited our tent at night, played their guitars and we all sang songs. Turned out that one of those guys was a cousin from Connecticut, who I never even knew existed.

Another time, I was in Walt Disney World and ran into a guy who worked at Roswell Park Cancer institute. We had only recently completed contract negotiations with each other.

Another incident involved Talk of the Villages. A couple years ago, a fellow posted on here that he was considering letting someone stay at his home (free) for a couple months, in exchange for taking care of his cats and home while he and his wife travelled for a couple months. I immediately responded, offering myself to be the one to do this. Ended up that it was the home and owners who I previously rented from for a month or two, over a three year period! What a coincidence! And, I'm going to have the same opportunity this year!

[mac9]

After moving here seven years ago, our new neighbors were moving in next door to us about 6 weeks after we had moved in. We invited them over for coffee and danish on the lanai. We started talking about ourselves and the wife noted that she had only met one other person with my first name and had gone to high school with her. I asked her what high school, and, yup, it was the same one that I had attended. Turns out that we didn't recognize each other as neither was blonde then, and, of course, we had both changed our names. We are still friends and neighbors.

[Trish Crocker]

I was at Bed Bath and Beyond and mentioned that I was from Michigan. The cashier asked what town and I said that I had lived in Warren at one time. She said that she had lived at 12 and Hoover, I said that I had lived at 11 and Hoover...the lady behind us then said that she lived at 9 and Schoenherr...2 miles away. Earlier that week I spoke with a man in his golf cart (with a Michigan sticker)...he and I went to the same high school. Previously we had been at a Fernandina meeting when our next door neighbor introduced us to a friend from Florida that was visiting..after talking for a while we found out the he had been a friend of Steve's ex-father in law and in fact, he remembered Steve from when he first went into practice with his father in law...small world!!!

[twinklesweep]

Wasn't there a story in the Daily Sun recently about someone who discovered a cousin living right next door and then another cousin somewhere else in TV? That seemed pretty amazing.

[maddie101]

1. We were in Beijing for spring break. We were going up the stairs at the Forbidden Gardens when we heard our son's name called out. It was a classmate from school ( in Texas). Strange enough to be in Bejing, but same tourist spot, same time

2. We were in Paris and my good friend was in London. Both of us with our daughters on two different vacations from Texas. They took train to Paris to shop and we ran into them at one of the biggest stores possible. We did not plan it at all. Very strange

3. We went to see our lot as construction was starting in TV. The neighbor to our left said we were lucky to have friends moving to our right. We did not know anyone moving to TV and we had no idea who was building to the other side of us. He thought we knew them because they were from Texas. Turns out the man worked with my husband and they know each other well, but had not talked in a few years. This was from a previous project. Neither one ever mentioned TV, but wound up buying next door to each other.

4. My son went on a cruise from Turkey with my aunt when he was 9. He wound up knowing someone on that trip, too. It was his camp counselor. Again, from Texas. This is a cruise leaving on half way around the world.

Yes, the world is SMALL

[Patty55]

Years ago I went to a friend of a friend's engagement party where I spent part of the evening having a conversation with someone named Cookie. A week or so later I told the party giver how much I enjoyed her sister-in-law Cookie. She told me that not only was Cookie not at the party but that nobody had seen her in something like 20 years.

Maybe a month later the four of us went on vacation, the maid in the hotel was Cookie.