Coincidences are kind of strange things. They range from the mundane and slightly odd to the totally unbelievable. The 12+ below fall into the last category. If you’re like me, you’ll be doing double takes all over the place while reading them.
#15. It turned out to be my father
“Went on a vacation to London. While there I met a man from Scotland. He found out I was from California and was like, “Oh, I used to work with a guy in California. Maybe you know him?” Internally I was rolling my eyes but I didn’t want to be the Ugly American so I humored him and asked for more information.
The dude in California that the Scot had worked with turned out to be my father.”
#14. We were next door neighbors
“Played an MMO (Everquest) for years. After about 5 years in I got to talking to someone else who was in my guild that entire time. It turned out we lived in the same city, then the same neighborhood. We talk a bit more and come to realize we were next door neighbors and had been that entire time.”
#13. Just in case
“I met a guy on a forum who had the same name as me, lived in the same town as me, and engaged in the same hobby as me. I told him we should meet to make sure we’re not the same person.”
#12. A lot of things had to coincidentally align
“I live in Missouri, but was in London about fifteen years ago because our college marching band was marching in their New Years’ Day parade. I was marching on the left flank, dutifully playing my instrument, and decided to stop looking straight ahead like you’re supposed to because I figured I’d never get a chance to enjoy this particular scenery again. If I hadn’t been on the left-hand side and glanced to my left in that exact moment, I never would have seen my cousin, also from Missouri and who I hadn’t seen since I was a little kid, standing within an arm’s reach with a shocked and confused look on her face. A lot of things had to coincidentally align for me to stroll past her on that particular street on the other side of the planet.”
#11. I have since lost it again
“Went on a river float trip to the Frio river right after graduating high school. Sometime during the trip I lost my class ring. Next year, A guy that worked with my dad found it in the river, recognized the last name, and brought it back with him.
I have since lost it again evacuating from a hurricane… damnit.”
#10. Coincidence?
“In 1983, at the age of 12, I got a concussion horsing around with my brother. We were poor and homeless so it was a couple of days before my Mom took me to one of several local hospitals. So, I wound up there for a few more days which were very foggy. Anyway, there was this one nurse who would stop by and be so sweet and brought me cookies and whatnot. I was smitten but never saw her my last day there.
Fast forward about 7 years and I am delivering auto parts for a local NAPA. I get to be good buddies with the parts coordinator at a very large construction company and he keeps going on and on about his best friends wife. “She’s so wonderful, sweet and all”, and he wishes his wife were cool like this guys wife. I mean, I listened to this dude gush about her nearly everyday for 6 months.
About 2 years later I met and soon after married my wife, who incidentally, is 14 years older than me. Through talking, which is the great denominator our relationship, I come to realise that my wife is not only the nurse 12 y/o me was amored with, but also the, then wife of the guys best friend.
In just one more unsubstantiated instance, I swear I saw her standing near the lakefront during the fireworks on the 4th July in 1976. She has confirmed that she was there that day but had been drinking didn’t remember which part of the lake she was standing on. There were thousands of people there that day.
We have been married for 26 years, now. I am still very much in love with her and I truly believe she is my soulmate.”
#9. It all added up
“When I was in highschool my best friend had just moved to town with her family, including her older sister who had a baby when she was 17. I spent a lot of time at her place and babysat the baby occasionally. She moved away a couple years later and we eventually fell out of touch.
Cut to 2015, I meet a guy online, we hit it off and became FWBs and hang out quite a bit. In 2017 he gets a facebook message from a young man claiming to be his son. The time frames and people involved all add up and yes, it is indeed his son. He is telling me the story, mentions the mother’s name and holy fuck, it’s the same name of my best friend’s older sister. Turns out I was babysitting his kid he didn’t know he had back in 1995. I had pictures of me with the baby and everything.”
#8. Neither of us knew we were going there
“Drove 300 miles to a beach and go into the bathroom as soon as we get there to take a piss. Only open urinal is next to my grandfather who lives right next door to me… neither of us knew we were going there.”
#7. Coach
“Ended up marrying the daughter of my high school wresting coach about 12 years after I graduated. Had I known that my high school wrestling coach, when visiting his grandkids, would be walking around my living room in his underwear, I probably would have been less of a teenage dickhead around him.”
#6. The chance to keep her happy
“Once I got a call from a school friend’s number (I was 15 then and wasn’t particularly close to this person). And her little cousin spoke to me, as though we were close friends, using my name etc. I was surprised but played along because she was little.
Then when I spoke to this friend later, she said sorry and that she must have called by mistake. I got the call again the next day and played along again, and this time when I bumped into the friend, she sounded a little worried and said that she had to say something.
She started crying. She said that the little girl was her cousin who used to live in the US and there, she had a friend with the same name as mine and similar age as mine, and that they both were the closest of friends.
And once she moved back to India, they discovered that she had a terminal illness for which she is being treated currently. Meanwhile, that guy with the same name died and they kept it from the little girl because it wouldn’t have gone down well with her. And that she thought my number was actually his and spoke to me like it was him.
I spoke to her two more times that week, thus time very willingly and for a longer time. The last time I spoke to her, she was going for her surgery and I said that it’ll all be fine. The next day, my friend breaks the news, she was hardly holding it together. But she was nice enough to bring me a few photos of her cousin.
I was really glad I had the chance to keep her happy in her last few days.”
#5. The Summoning
“The only time in my life I’ve ever seen the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was when I was telling someone about it. They refused to believe it existed, and I was describing it to them – and then it drove by.
I think I must have summoned it. I’ve been trying again, arranging various frankfurters in a pentagram surrounded by mustard scented candles, but haven’t had any luck.”
#4. The exact same unit
“I lived in an apartment in San Francisco for several years. I moved out. A couple of years later, I met a girl and we started dating. She lived in the exact same unit that I had lived in. I moved back into that unit. We have been married for 25 years.”
#3. Of all the gin joints…
“Stumbled into a bar 4000 miles from home, in another continent, and literally bumped into one of my closest childhood friends whom I haven’t seen since I was 12. Totally unplanned.”
#2. It never came back on
“My ‘spooky Halloween’ story has to be it. Got a brand new TV for my birthday in October (this was years ago, tube tv). I invited a friend over on Halloween night to hand out candy with me. We sat down to watch a Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons. We’re sitting on my couch, and Bart is sitting on his. He tries to turn on his TV but it doesn’t work. Batteries are dead in his remote. He fishes around in the couch cushions and pulls out a stick of plutonium from Homer’s work and sticks it in his remote, points it at his TV, and… my TV shut off. At that exact moment. And on Halloween. It never came back on. I had to return it.”
#1. I bought that LEGO truck
“I was shopping with my mom and my grandpa and i saw a cool LEGO truck for 20€ that i totally wanted. I asked my mom if i can have it. She says “only if i buy it myself”, fully knowing that i didn’t have money on me because i was 11 or so and of course normally my mom pays for everything and not some little kid. So instead my grandpa gave me 1€ to buy a lottery ticket, or rather he bought it because gambling laws and so and i just picked it. Aaaannnd i won exactly 20€, highest winning anyone of our family ever won in a lottery to this day(nobody really plays much), you can bet that i bought that LEGO truck.”
Hearing is believing? Maybe!
