Small world/weird coincidences

Parent Cafe
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Some years back I was at a medical conference and attending a dinner reception at a lovely museum. All of a sudden, I hear, “Auntie HImom!” It was the daughter of a dear family friend who was the docent of the evening protecting the museum’s property as best she could from the guests. She was earning her masters of Fine Arts in Philadelphia! The next day, we ditched the conference and toured the Liberty Bell with her and took her to lunch.

She had been in Philadelphia but never toured the Liberty Bell and we felt that needed prompt action to remedy!

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Over a decade ago, we were in DC, visiting our Senator’s office and what do we hear from the Health Aide when he greets us but, ”Coach HImom!” His mom and I coached him and D for soccer when they were 4 years old in preschool decades earlier!

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OK, here’s one. I was in the Nairobi airport the summer after my sophomore year of college. And in baggage claim, I came across a guy who had lived in my freshman year dorm hallway! (I think I recall that he was starting a stint in the Peace Corps.)

That was 35 years ago, and I don’t think I’ve seen or heard from him since (he had just graduated). :rofl:

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44

My voice subset story:

I taught special ed in MA after graduating. My first classroom had kids from 8-12 years old. At the time, it was one of the only schools that met the needs of autistic children with a very high level of needs. I moved a year later and lived in NY, VT, and IL over the next 10 years. Post-divorce, I headed back to MA and took a job as an Assistant Director of a school (students ranged from 9-22) in a completely different part of the state. My first day of work, the director was showing me around and we were talking as we walked through the halls. I hear a kid yelling from one of the rooms down the hall “I hear Ms. X”. I asked the director if she could make out who yelled that and sure enough, it was one of my old students. He then proceeded to run out of the classroom and down the hall to ask me if I still had my Ford Explorer.

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Well with us Jews those things are very common aren’t they? My favorite story. My daughter was doing a summer externship as a nursing student at a hospital in Missouri…we are not from Missouri . Her supervisor a young woman from a rural area told her “ you are the second Jewish person I’ve met. There is a nurse here who is Jewish maybe you know her. And my daughter asked if the other nurse was from Chicago where we live. No. From Louisiana apparently. So then the supervisor calls the other nurse up to come to their floor. My daughter was like “ oy she thinks all Jews know each other”. And the other nurse comes by. And was like “Hi [Maya daughter!]. Because of course they had gone to Jewish overnight camp together in Wisconsin!

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46

I always said I should have written a book about my online dating adventures before online dating became so commonplace.

When I first moved back to MA (story above), just by chance, so did 3 of my (single) sorority sisters and we hung out all the time. I worked incredibly long hours, so one night they emailed me (no texting back then) to tell me they wrote their Match.com ads. So, what did I do at 11 o’clock that night? I submitted my ad and emailed them once I submitted it.

Only to wake up to an e-mail the next morning saying “We just wrote them as a joke! We didn’t submit them!”. Oops.
Let’s just say, I must be a great dating app writer, because my ad got a ton of replies (voice mailbox and just starting to have the choice,for a few extra bucks, to do emails). I had so many replies, I started farming them out to my friends that didn’t submit their ads :rofl: “Ya know, I don’t think we’d hit it off, but I have a friend that would be perfect for you”

Turns out, it was pretty successful. One of the couples I fixed up got married soon after my husband and I did. My husband’s band played at their wedding. Another friend showed up to the wedding with a guy she met on Match.com, who saw my husband playing and said, “I know him”. Turns out her fiancé lived in the same dorm room in Germany that my husband had lived in the previous year when he was studying abroad. When DH returned to visit his friends the following year, they introduced him to the new guy in his old room. I was surprised they would remember each other, but they hung out for a week with the common friend group.

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47

Ok here’s one that turned out quite valuable for me. I attended a medical conference in Chicago around 2016. While there, there was a fabulous young lung doctor who was a speaker. She, H, I and an older mentor doctor from U of MI stayed up until midnight talking and listening. (H and I normally turn in much earlier, so very unusual for us). She happened to be from UCSF and happened to be the favorite protege of my new UCSF lung doc. I asked her if she’d be willing to be my doc if her mentor (who was my UCSF lung doc) was ever unavailable or retired—he was 70 at the time—and she happily agreed. He recently retired and she’s now my doctor. Before he retired he wrote a very thorough and complete summary and I had a medical appointment with both of them, so a warm handoff. (Before she joined our appointment, he had confided in us that he thinks she’s one of the brightest stars in the pulmonary community—very bright and talented as researcher and clinician—we agree.)

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48

I have one of those stories. I have a very distinctive voice and a strong Brooklyn accent. I moved out to NJ when I got married and raised my daughter there. One day I was in the school library for an event and a woman comes up to me and says aren’t you Kiddie Maiden Name, I recognized your voice. Turns out her sister and I were classmates in elementary school like 40 years earlier. The funny thing is that I didn’t even remember that my classmate had a sister!

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One more here. My husband and I went to the same HS in Brooklyn at the same time, but did not have the same circle of friends. Maybe 25 years after we had graduated my husband was working with a woman E. He had worked closely with her for like a year, when one day they were discussing their weddings and she mentioned that she got married in a place that was owned by my husband’s cousin. They continued talking and realized that they graduated HS together. He comes home with this news that E went to school with us. Turns out I was actually friends with E in HS - we went on many double date with our then boyfriends.

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My very good friend dated a guy seriously for several years in college. After they broke up, she never ran into him … until she did. Forty years later, she went to the wedding of her H’s best friend’s D - and much to her surprise, her former flame was the deacon who officiated the wedding. After the ceremony, she approached him, introducing her H to him. The guy acted as if he had never heard of her, completely blowing her off. Her H and his buddy teased her big time over that … “Sure, you two were a serious couple for years. So serious that he doesn’t remember you.” To this day, we cannot figure out how the ex could act that way toward her! We consider it the Great Unsolved Mystery.

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51

Maybe he has a twin brother?

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Nope. My mom’s cousin attends the church, and I double checked with him to determine it was really the same guy. The only thing we can figure out is that he never told his wife that he had a serious relationship before her & he wasn’t about to let anyone in his church know that he did in case she found out. That or a closed head injury!

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53

This won’t compare with the other stories here but I think it’s pretty fun. We were on our first European vacation following the basic Rick Steves philosophy, with few possessions and fewer reservations. Our kids were 6 and 8 or thereabouts and we each had our own bag.

We got on a train in Cinque Terre heading north, thinking maybe we’d stop in Genoa. We got off the train, took a quick look around, saw a bunch of druggies, and got on the next train, toward France.

Next significant stop, Monte Carlo, and there’s no way we’re getting off there. So I look at the map and we decide we’re going to Nice.

Ad we’re heading there I pull out my Rick Steves book and learn that Nice is the exception to the “no reservations” rule. Always book ahead in Nice.

We’re on a slow train. It’s getting late. Everyone is getting off in Monte Carlo. The kids are getting tired, and eventually fall asleep.

There are only 2 other passengers, a young American couple. When the train stops in Nice it’s about midnight, the kids are asleep and we have 4 bags and no room reservations. We’re screwed.

I sheepishly ask the other couple if they could help us with the bags while we carry the kids off the train. They’re delightful and helpful and we all get off the train. I was expecting a nice train station but there’s basically nothing there, at least nothing open.

It turned out the other couple live only a few miles away from us in Park City, Utah. They resolved they wouldn’t abandon us, even if it meant the 6 of us all sharing their room.

In the end, after many phone calls, the clerk at their hotel found us what must’ve been the last room in Nice.

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delete

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Found out this week that one of FDIL’s bridesmaids is a former sorority sister of my niece – FDIL and niece were raised in different states, as was the bridesmaid, but niece and bridesmaid apparently attended the same small undergrad college.

The one and only time I flew overseas, I returned right before Christmas along with half a plane of servicemen. I had on a college sweatshirt, I’m about 20, I am noticing one of them staring and I know it isn’t at me…turns out he was from that same town, and then in chatting we discover he grew up a block from my dormitory. Was on his way home to his family.

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You know you’re old when… my husband and I were eating today and I told him I needed to post something we were talking about on this thread, but now neither of us can remember what it was.

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There are a lot of weird coincidences with 2 old bf’s and DH. One bf and DH both born in the same country overseas and both of their families were from the same state in the US (DH has family in the town old BF’s family is from), both parents were a similar line of work, etc) and another BF’s dad and my DH had very similar names . Eerie.

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D22 was born on my ex-MIL’s birthday and S23 was born on ex-husband’s birthday.

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59

My husband and I both have sisters with the same first name born on the same month/day.

On my paternal side I have three close relatives born on Valentine’s Day and three on my birthday.

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60

I had to call the customer care line of one of the corporate ski resort chains to try to get a glitch fixed with DH’s ski pass for next year.. The guy I got on the phone was delightful and we chatted a bit- turns out his mother’s birthday was the exact same date (day/month/year) as my DH , and his family is from the next town over in Ireland as my dau in law’s family.

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