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Luck. Fate. Blessing. A glitch in the matrix. Or, if you’re more skeptical, just a coincidence.

It’s a phenomenon that, from a statistical perspective, is random and meaningless. But for us humans, it often feels so surreal that a supernatural or divine explanation seems far more plausible—not to mention a lot more fun to believe.

That’s why we’ve gathered some of the most fascinating coincidences people have experienced and shared online. Scroll down to read their stories, upvote the ones that surprised you, and if you’ve got one of your own, drop it in the comments!

More info: Quora

#1

Open ambulance doors with a stretcher inside; an insane coincidence story unfolds. The night my daughter died in a double hit-and-run in Colorado, a stranger stopped to help her and was witness to the second car that hit her, ending her life. He had been trying to help her though; he called for an ambulance and although it was ultimately unsuccessful, every effort was made to save her life. That stranger is a hero as far as I’m concerned.

The man who tried to help was very traumatized by what he had witnessed and had to change jobs so that he no longer had to daily pass by the place where my daughter died as he went to and from work. Unrelated to the accident, he and his wife got rid of their landline when they moved. I wanted very much to thank him but although I had tried every way I knew, his job had changed, he no longer had a telephone I could call 411 for and he no longer lived in the same place. I finally decided that simply being grateful would have to be enough, even if I couldn’t tell him myself.
Two years later, I’m sitting at the dinner table in a hostel in London and strike up a conversation with a guy also having dinner there. He was from the same area as me. He remembered my daughter’s death not just from it being in the news, but because the husband of one of his co-workers had stopped and tried to help the young lady.
OMG.

To make a long story short, he put me in touch with his co-worker and I was able to email her and express my thanks and gratitude for her husband’s efforts that night. She emailed me back and said that although her husband was desperately sorry he couldn’t save her, he was grateful that she didn’t have to die alone. He is a hero in my eyes and I’m so glad I got to let him know how grateful our family is. May he and his loved ones be abundantly blessed.

Judy Lujan , Mikhail Nilov Report

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    #2

    Two people shaking hands over a table with documents, illustrating an astonishing coincidence. I was headed in for a job interview several years back. As I'm walking in, two other men are approaching the door from different angles. One of them speeds up to cut off the other and get in the door first, and the other walks in, shaking his head in disbelief. As I walk in behind them, the first guy runs to the elevator and presses the button, not holding the elevator for the other guy and me. Again, the second guy just shakes his head and we wait for the next elevator. I say "Can you believe some people?" And we both chuckle a little bit.

    As it turns out, we are headed to the same floor, so we get off the elevator together. As we walk into an office, there is guy #1 Mr Impatient, standing at the desk tapping his foot as the receptionist is finishing up a phone call. The receptionist asks him "can I help you?" And he says "I'm here to see Mr Smith for an interview at 3:30." (it's currently 2:50).

    I think to myself "Great, this guy is interviewing for the same position I am and he will act like the sweetest guy during the interview." I lean over and tell the receptionist "I am Mr Smith’s 3 o'clock interview." Mr Impatient GLARES at me.

    The other guy I walked in with (the one Mr Impatient cut off) then says "Hey gentlemen, I'm Mr Smith." And turns to Mr Impatient and says "you don't need to wait around. I've already determined you are not a good fit for our company. "

    I got the job.

    Brian Rayl , Tahir osman Report

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    #3

    Historic building with large artillery guns, surrounded by greenery, illustrating an astonishing coincidence. Back in the 1980’s, a friend of mine was working on a paper about some of the action in WWII. One of the incidents he was working on involved an American unit with a British officer seconded to it. He needed more information about the officer, and had no idea how to do that. Someone suggested contacting the Imperial War Museum in London to see if they could provide a lead or source on how to find him. So, he got on the phone and called the Imperial War Museum. He asked the person who answered the phone how he could locate an officer from WWII, and was asked if he knew the man's name and unit. He gave them, and the response was: “Speaking.”

    In one of the most incredible phone calls in history, he had actually reached the officer who had left the service and gone to work for the Museum, and happened to be walking by a desk when the phone rang. The secretary was away from her desk for a few moments when he happened to walk by and answered the phone.

    Frank Duncan , Francais a Londres Report

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    #4

    Man changing a flat tire on the roadside, experiencing an unexpected coincidence. I once stopped to help a guy change a tire. He had an arm in a sling and two very young kids in his car. He thanked me saying he didn't want to hurt his arm any more and wanted to get back to work.

    Fast forward three months and I'm in a very ugly motorcycle wreck. One of the EMTs noticed my back was broken. Had they continued I'd have been paralyzed. His quick thinking prevented that.

    After I recovered I got to meet the EMT crew that saved my life.

    The guy that noticed my back was broken? The guy whose tire I had changed.

    Ryan Fernandez , artursafronovvvv Report

    #5

    Person with an umbrella standing in a lush, overgrown cemetery path, surrounded by gravestones. When my brother died, it took 2 years before I could afford to spread his ashes at the family plot at a remote cemetery in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia because I couldn’t afford to fly there. Until I could get there, his ashes sat in their box in my family room in Delaware. When we finally traveled north, my husband and two cousins accompanied me to the cemetery. We planned to spread some of his ashes by my father and grandparents’ headstone and then place the rest in the brook that runs through the graveyard out to the sea. It was an overcast, misty day on the Cape Breton coast. We got out of the car and began walking to my father’s gravestone when we suddenly heard music. We all stopped, wondering from where it came. Lo and behold, it was my cell phone. Somehow, the google play app had activated. Now, just so you know, I rarely use google play on my phone, I had not activated it, and I always keep my phone on priority only silence. However, it was playing music. When I pulled it from my jacket pocket, I realized it was playing The Rankin Family - a Canadian band who my brother not only loved but who he had introduced to me well before they became known in the US. The band’s music had always been a common bond for us. Then, the song was one I had never heard before, and it was about someone going away forever. Needless to say, my husband, cousins, and I were just a little freaked out. But, in the end, I knew it was my brother’s way of saying goodbye. I will never forget it.

    Anne Weeks , Kateryna Hliznitsova Report

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    #6

    Woman smiling in a market, holding a drink, possibly experiencing an astonishing coincidence. Strange encounter in Thailand
    I was traveling to Thailand alone, for the first time. When I arrived, I stopped by Khao San Road (one of the more popular streets in Bangkok) for a bite. I’m waiting in line for some food, and say hi to a cute girl who was in line behind me.

    HER: “Where are you from?”
    ME: “New York, you?”
    HER: “Israel. Where in New York?”
    ME: “A place called Riverdale, in the Bronx.”
    HER: “Oh cool… is your mom Daphne?”
    ME: “ :: looks of disbelief:: YES… how in the heck…

    Turns out she was my babysitter when I was a baby. Her family left New York when she was young to move back to Israel. 25 years later, we bump into each other in Thailand…

    Annalise Cameron , cottonbro studio Report

    #7

    Person fueling a car at a gas station represents one of many insane coincidences experienced by people. 38 years ago I had to go into London for an interview. The job was for 3 times existing salary and I was nervous so set off early, driving down the M4 and planning to park at Hammersmith and get the tube to their offices near Leicester Square (now a MacDonalds).

    I didn’t usually drive into London so stopped my MG Midget at the petrol station at Hammersmith to fill up and ask where there was a car park. As I went to pay a man entered in an obvious hurry so I stepped aside and said “You go first. I’m in no hurry.”. He paid, thanked me and left. I paid, parked and caught the tube to my interview.

    Yes, you guessed it. The man in a hurry was my interviewer and he recognized me, hired me and I spent an interesting time in the USA working in Georgia, Ohio and Manhattan, New York.

    Sometimes Karma can take a while to arrive, but in this case my politeness to a man in a hurry gave me almost immediate payback.

    Steve Dadds , Getty Images Report

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    Matthew Currie
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    A small but similar one here. ON a complicated flight from Vermont to Alaska, a flight was cancelled, and rebooked on a long detour, with planned leisure cancelled. Wife and I were waiting for a flight which would get us to one stop short of our destination with minutes to spare, no time for checked luggage. We had carry on only, but the flight attendant insisted we check it anyway. Earlier while waiting, we were in line at Starbucks for coffee, when a man in a hurry came by, and, not in a big hurry, we let him cut ahead. Turns out he was on the plane's crew, and showed up just in time to tell the flight attendant to let us through with carry on (there was plenty of space). Made the connection with not much more than seconds to spare, thanks to that.

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    #8

    A happy dog named Marko being held, showcasing an insane coincidence with its unexpected playful expression. So one day I lost my dog, Marko. He's the most adorable and adventurous corgi ever and he got out of the house and ran away. However, I wasn't heartbroken for long because I eventually got a voicemail from a neighbor further down the street, (let's call her Sarah Hall) saying she found my dog and her kids were bringing him over. Thank God his dog tag had my name, phone number, and address.

    Anyway, half a year later I was walking Marko in my neighborhood and he came across a black dog running around the front of the houses, just sniffing around the bushes. The dog sees Marko and they do their dog thing, sniffing each other's butts and getting along right off the bat. This dog had no collar and seemed lost. As I walked Marko back home, it followed us home since I guess it had nowhere to go. I took him in and called him Kaiba while Marko was just so happy to have a friend spend the night. The next day I set out to post up lost dog posters when I see a family I never met before already posting up posters looking for this dog. It was perfect timing and they were so relieved I had him. It turns out his name was Bruiser and the story goes, they were just friends of the family that owned Bruiser. Apparently the original family moved away to the other side of town, Bruiser escaped, but rather than finding his way back to the new house, he was able to trek all the way back to the neighborhood they used to live, where I found him. I bid Bruiser/Kaiba a fond farewell and kept one of the posters as a memento.

    I thought that was a great end to the story, but then later I'm clearing out my voicemail history while waiting in line at Disney when I remember Sarah Hall’s voicemail. Something clicked. After a fun day at the theme park, I went home, grabbed the poster and saw the name at the bottom, “If found, please call Sarah Hall…” The number was the same and I was just in awe. She finds my dog and then half a year later, I find her dog and it all comes full circle.

    Kevin Favis Report

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    #9

    Person driving a car at sunset, experiencing an astonishing coincidence. I was awoken from my hazy sleep one morning with a frantic call from a good friend of mine.

    He informed me about how his car was stolen that morning and filled me in on all the details. How they broke in, how he’s called the cops, etc. All the boring stuff. He ends with jokingly “Keep your eye out for it”. Yeah right I thought, it is most likely already trashed. We hang up and I begin my day as usual.

    Lunchtime arrived and I decided to go home to eat, about 5 mins drive. On the way home in the car, I received a call from my friend. Just a catch up call, nothing to do with the stolen car.

    As we are speaking, I pass a car heading the opposite direction that looked familiar. I asked my friend the licence of his stolen car, did a u-turn and proceeded to catch up to the car I saw, all the while still on the phone with my friend.

    I caught up with it and yep, it was definitely his car. Long story short, I chased the car down while my friend was in another car on the phone to me and the cops at the same time, directing the cops to my location. It ended with a heap of police cars converging on the stolen car, pulling the thieving s**m from it and locking them up.

    So basically, his car was stolen in the morning and I found it at the same time as talking with him later that day. Not much of an amazing coincidence I suppose, but still a cool one in my opinion.

    Matt Smith , Tobi Report

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    #10

    Two men chatting at a wooden bar, both holding glasses, experiencing an unexpected coincidence. This happened to me yesterday.

    I was at a bar in Oceanside California and noticed one of the barbacks was wearing a shirt with a silhouette of Ohio on it. I grew up in Ohio, so I asked where he was from:

    “I’m from Cleveland.”

    “Me too. A little south of it.”

    “We actually know each other. You trained me at a restaurant and gave me my first AFI album”

    I’m 33 years old. When I was 19 or 20 I trained this 16 year old kid named Pete how to bus tables at an Italian restaurant — and apparently gave him an AFI album (which probably explains why I can’t find it). That he recognized me after over a decade and that we both happened to be in the same place in a random bar in Southern California is pretty incredible to me.

    Michael Scur , freepik Report

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    Ash
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Some friends of my mom's family went on a vacation once from Indiana to somewhere in Colorado. The two of them were standing in line for something, and the guy ahead of them started jingling the keys in his pocket. One of the friends said, "He jingles his keys in his pocket just like Frank [their next-door neighbor]." The key-jingler turned around. It was Frank. He and his wife were ALSO on a vacation to the same part of Colorado. None of them knew the others were going there.

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    #11

    Taxi sign glowing at night, capturing an astonishing coincidence in urban life. I was visiting Aberdeen on a business trip from London. Checking out of the hotel I was sitting in the lobby and waiting for the taxi.

    A gentleman next to me asks where I am from. When I reply I am visiting from London but originally from Pakistan, he told me he was originally from India but based in Birmingham for more than 40 years and had a very good friend from Pakistan that he lost touch with 20 years ago when they were together in London.

    With our taxis in sight, we get up and I just ask his friend’s name. The lost friend is my parent’s next door neighbour.

    Before getting into our taxis, we exchange numbers and 30 mins later these friends were in touch on the phone.

    Zeeshan Tayyeb , Fellipe Ditadi Report

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    #12

    Astonishing coincidences at a row of vibrant casino slot machines, each with colorful LED displays. I was in a casino and a mother and son sat down at slot machines on either side of me. They were have a loud conversation and the sons phone kept ringing over and over but he kept declining the calls. Turns out he was leaving his wife that day and he spent 30 minutes talking about how horrible she was and his mom throwing in her 2 cents.

    Finally as a joke I said “let me answer the phone”, so he laughed and gave it to me. When she called back I said who is this, turns out it was my sister and the man was my brother in law. My sister started screaming at me to get away from her husband. I have 7 sisters and this one I had not talked to in 5 years due to some stupid argument we had.

    She divorced him and her and I are now best friends, Funny how life works. We laugh about this a lot.

    Maggie Maldonado , Vanessa Valkhof Report

    #13

    Passengers experience coincidences on a crowded subway train. My mother-in-law, Sara, is a survivor of the N**i h*******t in Europe. A Polish born Jew, she’s the only survivor of her entire nuclear and extended family. She and her husband Wolf, also a survivor, settled in Argentina after the war and lived a life that was anything but easy.

    Twenty years ago, fifty years after the war, fearing that the Nazis were coming to get her, she sunk into a profound depression, a breakdown that transformed a delightful, attractive and very giving person into a helpless, tragic shadow of who she used to be, unable to take care of herself and totally dependant upon the loving care of her husband, Wolf.

    When my wife and I in Toronto, Canada got the unexpected call that her father was just days away from dying of lung cancer, a student of mine happened to be in my office to purchase something. She told my wife and me that her husband had recently died of lung cancer and asked if we would like the name of an organization that she found to be an extremely helpful source of information about lung cancer. We of course said yes and she promised to call the next morning with the telephone number.

    My wife and I went home, spoke to family in Argentina and that night booked her on the next flight to Buenos Airies in two days.

    The next morning I called Immigration Canada to find what we needed to do to bring my mother-in-law into Canada after her husband passes on. I was mortified to speak with a classic bureaucrat who gave me the impression that it was going to be challenging and perhaps impossible to bring Sara into Canada because of her mental condition. This was very disconcerting to say the least.

    Since my wife was an only child and had no one who could take care of her mother, the prospect was that my wife might have to stay in Argentina to look after her, perhaps for months or more, until we could sort out this situation.

    I was dejected when I hung up the phone and before I could even reflect on the new complication in my life, I received a call from my student, Lois, with the telephone number of the lung cancer organization.

    I thanked her and even before I had a chance to tell of my mother-in-law’s plight, she asked me if I needed an immigration lawyer. I said that after my previous conversation minutes earlier with Immigration Canada, an immigration lawyer would probably be most useful.

    Lois was an editor at Canada’s most respected newspaper and recommended Arnold, a friend and former journalist at the same paper who went on to become an immigration lawyer. She gave me Arnold’s name and phone number and I told her that I will call him as soon as I return from the Immigration Canada office. I had to go there and pick up an application form to start the immigration process for my mother-in-law.

    I hung up the phone, took the elevator down to the street which I crossed and entered the nearby subway entrance. My mind was racing. My heart was aching. I was full of fear. I could feel my body tightening up as I ruminated on what we could do if Sara was unable to get into Canada.

    When I got onto the train I immediately started to meditate in order to quiet my emotions and clear my mind. I could feel the anxiety dissipating as I went deeper into meditation. In the distance I heard the transit announcement name the station and heard people coming into the subway car.

    Then I heard a voice call my name and say “Stop meditating and say hello to me”. I opened my eyes and saw Mary, an old acquaintance who was on a committee with me a decade earlier, and we started talking.

    Needless to say, I started telling her about how distraught I was in learning that I might not be able to bring my mother-in-law into Canada. We talked for a couple of subway stops when a stranger who was standing next to us excused himself and said that he couldn’t help but overhear our conversation. He said that I shouldn’t worry about being able to bring my mother-in-law into Canada because she would definitely be admitted on “compassionate grounds”. I asked him how he knew that and he said that he was an immigration lawyer.

    I turned to my acquaintance and said what good fortune that an immigration lawyer should by chance hear our conversation on the subway and give me a free consultation that could instantly lower my anxiety.

    The lawyer then said that he was getting off at the next stop and I thanked him for his generous advice and asked him for his business card. As he was getting off the train, he handed me his card through the door and I discovered that it was none other than Arnold, the lawyer whose name was given to me by Lois not more than 20 minutes earlier.

    As the subway door was starting to close I said “Arnold! I just got your name from Lois!” He said, “Are you Eli? Call me later this afternoon” and the subway pulled out of the station.

    I continued the trip to Immigration Canada without any fear. I now “knew” that things would work out. I had been given the sign that everything would be alright.

    I hired Arnold’s legal services and, as he said, I had no trouble bringing Sara into the country on compassionate grounds.

    But just consider what the odds might be that just minutes after Lois referred me to Arnold, that he should randomly be standing next to me in a busy subway car in the fifth largest city in North America, overhearing a conversation that would not have happened if an old acquaintance had not come upon me and rather rudely interrupted my meditation.

    Eli Bay , Manuel Lardizabal Report

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    Pernille
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    So now history is censored! Imagine being so much of a snowflake that you'ask to have HOLOCAUST censored.

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    #14

    Late one night, George and I sat up playing backgammon and talking. We’d spent many nights like this one—playing past midnight and telling each other stories.

    This particular night the topic was, “unbelievably stupid things people we knew had done.” Like backgammon, our storytelling was fiercely competitive. George told such good tales that I was finally forced to pull the ace from my sleeve: the story of Uncle Louie. You see, Uncle Louie did something downright brain-dead. Let me see if I can explain.

    It happened at one of those noisy family gatherings—Christmas I think. All the family had gathered together at Mama Tencha’s. Everyone was crowded into her steamy little apartment in the Ukrainian neighborhood.

    Uncle Louie, being the youngest unmarried son, still lived at home even though he was a grown man. He participated in questionable activities. Strange smelling smoke leaked out of his room from time to time. He hung out at the margins, coming and going at all hours of the day and night. But because he was family, his rascally ways were entirely overlooked.

    During this particular gathering, Uncle Louie got a pain—like a stomach ache. At first Mama Tencha and the rest of the family suggested the usual litany of home remedies— the Pepto, the bi-carb. But Louie wasn’t having any of it. Not him. He was going to be fine.

    When Louie began looking a little green around the gills and took to his bed, the family grew more concerned. Maybe a heating pad or some of Mama Tencha’s hot tea?

    “No, Ma. I’ll be fine. I’m just gonna sleep it off.”

    When Louie began to writhe and moan a bit, the family grew increasingly disconcerted. Several relatives suggested he should visit the doctor or the emergency room.

    But Louie said, “no.” He wouldn’t go. They might as well stop bothering him about it. He would be fine in the morning.

    In the morning Louie no longer had any problems. Of any kind. The autopsy revealed that he’d died of a massive infection, the result of an untreated ruptured appendix.

    It was a family tragedy, Louie dying like that, but nevertheless, George and I cracked up. We couldn’t stop laughing. What a fool Uncle Louie had been! What a dufus! He’d been too macho to get help. You’ve really got to be an idiot to go like that.

    Uncle Louie’s story obviously won that night’s contest. George and I were still smirking when he left to go home, defeated, but happy.

    The next morning the phone rang and woke me up. It was George who said, “You won’t believe where I am.”

    “Where are you?

    “I’m in the hospital.”

    “What?” I asked in disbelief. “Are you okay?” I was alarmed.

    “Yeah, but listen to what happened. When I got home last night I went right to bed, but I was having trouble sleeping because my stomach hurt.”

    “I tried to ignore it and just go to sleep—but it got worse. When it got even worse, I was still gonna tough it out because it was so late. That and I absolutely hate going to doctors. I’ll admit it. I’m pretty macho. But then I remembered how stupid Uncle Louie had been and decided maybe I’d better have it checked out.”

    “When the doctor in the emergency room told me that I had appendicitis, I called my sister, who’s a medical student and asked her to come. She watched during the surgery. She told me that the doctor said I had the most inflamed appendix they’d ever seen that hadn’t ruptured yet.”

    “I guess I was pretty lucky. I might have died. Thanks for telling me about Uncle Louie.”

    It’s remarkable how life works. Even doing something terribly stupid can end up serving someone years after you’ve died. Redemption can occur spontaneously. Contribution can happen unexpectedly. Grace arises from absurdity. A story can save your life. Thank you Uncle Louie.

    Monica Rix Paxson Report

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    HurlWurk
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Sometimes the point of someone's life is to serve as a warning to others

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    #15

    Woman on a windy mountain path, experiencing an astonishing coincidence. I’ve been wanting to tell this story on Quora for awhile now!!

    About 5 or 6 years ago, I was in Hawaii with my family. The weather can change quickly there, so although the sun was shining, it soon began to rain.

    We got some mixed rain and sunshine.

    My dad commented on it: “Wow, sunny rain!”
    A nearby lady turned around and said, “What?”
    We were all confused and she asked, “Do I know you?”
    We were like, “No…” I mean, why would we know this random person in Hawaii? We’re just on vacation.
    She said, “You called my name.” What, no, we totally didn’t???

    Her name was Sunny Rain.

    Gabrielle Koetsier , Image-Source Report

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    Farnzy
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Makes me think of my friends dad. He called everyone "Guy" and one day someone held the door for him and he said "Thanks, Guy!" and the shocked man said "How did you know my name?".

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    #16

    I have always loved history.

    When I was 12, I got a brand new social studies book, filled with pictures and charts. I remember pawing through it, fascinated, and I remember a particular photo of a white-haired, old man, sitting in a wheel barrow in front of the first oil derrick ever dug in Pennsylvania.

    Fifteen years later, I got married. After the wedding, my father-in-law sent me a clipping in the mail, including that same photograph: the man in the photo was my husband's great-great-great-uncle.

    What are the odds that as a child, I’d see a photo of a relative of the man I would someday marry?

    Lisa Shields Report

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    Debby Keir
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I had my tonsils out age 5 (in the 50's) We were in a children's ward, all having had the same operation. One of the kids became ill post operatively - chickenpox. We all came down with chickenpox a week or so after discharge. Some 15 years later, I met a guy and we dated for several years. Chatting to his mum, turns out we were both in the same ward and HE was the one that gave everyone chickenpox.

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    #17

    Astonished student in class taking notes, wearing a red shirt, focused on the task. I still can't believe it!

    Once I went for an examination. 15 mins were left for the commencement of exams. So, I thought it's better to interact with the guy seated beside. And it goes this way…

    Me: Hey, I'm Anish.
    He: Wait, What? Even my name is Anish.
    Me: Surname?
    He: George! (Anish George)
    Me: Even my full name is Anish George! Wow!
    He: Woho, what a coincidence? Suddenly he gazed at my screen and said, “No way, it can't happen!”
    Me: Hey, what happened?
    He: We share our birthday on the same date and year.

    I was insanely surprised!!

    Later, many similarities were revealed except he wasn't my doppelganger. Sigh..

    Cheers!

    Anish George , drazenphoto Report

    #18

    Man holding a book titled "Incredible Coincidence," smiling indoors, highlighting insane coincidences. This is mother of all coincidences. Or that is how I wish to define it.

    It was year 1982. I was working as a trainee in a Chartered Accountant’s (CPA equivalent in India) office.

    My boss had called me for a meeting to his office.

    When I reached there at the appointed time, he was held up in another meeting with a client. As I waited for him to call me, I looked around his office.

    My eyes fixated on a bookshelf. “Wow!” I thought, “this man really reads a lot”. Usually in a Chartered Accountant’s office you see lots of books related to Company Law and Income Tax. In his book shelf there were several other books - fiction and non-fiction.

    Even as I was looking at the bookshelf, one book that was kept on a table near the bookshelf caught my attention.

    The title of that book? “Incredible Coincidence” - The Baffling World of Synchronicity by Alan Vaughan - Author of Patterns of Prophecy.

    The book cover highlighted (I am now typing this seeing the book cover, so don’t appreciate me for my vivid memory) “The man who found King Tut’s Tomb dies and the lights go out in Cairo”, “A housewife finds a ring she lost forty years before - Inside a Potato”, “A Bullet finds its mark twenty years after it was fired - by accident”.

    Now, tell me, if you were there in that place, will you not pick that book to read?

    I did exactly that.

    I can tell you it was a page turner for I read about 25 pages quickly. It was engrossing and the coincidences mentioned were nothing short of incredible.

    But as luck would have it, my boss called me in. I went for the discussion, came out and left his office not having the courage to ask him lend that book to me. Incredibly, the book was also not there on the table. His assistants must have kept it back in the shelf.

    The above narrated incident happened in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.

    The memory of this book stayed with me for very long. Fast forward seven years to 1989. I became a Chartered Accountant and had moved to New Delhi, India. Whenever I visited a bookshop I used to search for this book. I never found that book. One day, I had to visit a bank for a meeting. After the meeting I left for my house. As I was engrossed in some thoughts I missed my regular route.

    I realized I had taken the wrong route only when I saw the unfamiliar shop sign boards on either side of the road. I immediately stopped and took the next turn to get back to my regular route. Even as I was turning my vehicle, I saw a bookshop. I thought, I will get there to browse and see if there were any new books from my favorite author Jeffrey Archer.

    I went into the bookshop to look. Strangely I didn’t find any Jeffrey Archer books there. I was surprised how a popular writer’s books were not there in that shop. I inquired the counter clerk. He said “Sir! books are arranged in alphabetical order of author names. “J” is upstairs”. He pointed to a small spiral staircase in the corner.

    I walked to the spiral stair case to get upstairs. Even as I walked my shoulder rubbed a rotating bookshelf kept near the staircase. And the bookshelf rotated by the impact.

    I was two steps into the stair case and right at my eye level the bookshelf showed the book “Incredible Coincidence” - The Baffling World of Synchronicity by Alan Vaughan”

    Isn’t it a strange coincidence? What else took me to that bookshop on that day when the book was available?

    Wayne Dyer says “If you really really really want something, you will get it”

    I did get…

    Didn’t I?

    Sathyamurthy Ramanujam Report

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    Janissary35680
    Community Member
    Premium
    3 days ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    For the benefit of those who may not know, "Synchronicity" is a concept developed by the psychologist Carl Jung and later expanded to include things like the I Ching and the paranormal. For this and similar views, Jung is regarded as something of an oddball by mainstream psychologists.

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    #19

    I was living in Philadelphia, the fourth largest city in the USA if I recall correctly. Millions of people. I'd moved there years before from Ohio. I'd grown up in foster care, some of the time with my father’s side of the family. My bio mother and maternal grandmother (who had adopted me and given me her married last name) had died. I didn't really have much connection with that side of my family. Foster care at that time didn't work so hard to maintain familial relationships as they do now. So in Philly, I started to create my own family of friends. I started attending Quaker meeting, and I joined a personal growth support community as part of my healing and to find joy in my life.

    One of the gals I met, Jen, and I became good friends. We were in both of these communities and tended to have the same sense of humor. Heck, we even has the same body type and pretty similar hair. We both were artsy types with similar styles and willingness to try any crazy method of arting. One summer, she was visiting her dad in Kentucky, and I was visiting my friend and mother figure in Tennessee and we decided to find a way to hang out. I drove to her parent’s home in Kentucky and realized we weren't too far from where my bio sister’s daughter lived. I called and invited her down to visit with us. As I started to give her directions, she says… “I know that road. That's where Aunt so and so lives.” Aunt so and so was Jen’s grandma. It turned out Jen’s grandfather and my grandfather were brothers!

    So… I met my bio cousin and became friends with her without even knowing we were related!

    For truth,
    I’m not 100% sure of the relationships(great grandfather, uncle, etc. of her side, but I know the connection was through my maternal grandfather). Jen’s dad had done a genealogy chart, and I was on it with the last name that I'd been born with!

    Pamila Jo Florea Report

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    #20

    Years ago I was driving down the expressway when there was a loud BANG from under the hood and the car decelerated quickly. I pulled to a stop in the emergence lane and began considering my options. It was raining, so the prospect of even looking under the hood didn't seem appealing, and I didn't have any tools with me in any event, and certainly didn't have the parts to fix whatever had obviously broken. This was before cell phones, so while I knew my father was home and could come to my assistance calling him meant I would have to find my way off the expressway, which had a chain-link fence down both sides. I looked around and noticed that a car had run off the road and knocked down the chain link fence just a few yards away. Better yet, there appeared to be a residential street just beyond the fence, so I got out of the car, hopped the remains of the fence, and found myself in a small cul de sac with a choice of three or four houses nearby. Choosing one at random, I walked up to the door and knocked. "Dave, what are you doing here?" The person who answered was Troy, a co-worker from several years earlier. I explained, and of course he loaned me his phone so that I could call my father. I then went back to the car to wait for my father and the tow truck he said he would call. While I was waiting, an electric utility truck pulled in behind me and the driver turned his emergency lights on. I got out of the car and ran back to the truck to tell the driver someone was already on the way, and it was our next-door neighbor from about 15 years earlier!

    Dave Baldwin Report

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    #21

    A black crow perched on a tree branch against a clear blue sky, illustrating a coincidence in nature. Once when a class of tenth graders and I were discussing Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven,” an actual raven landed on the tree outside of my classroom and started cawing loudly … no kidding! The students and I lost it!

    I’ve taught in that room for almost twenty years, and I can’t remember another time when a raven has landed in that tree, let alone under such specific circumstances.

    George Ramos , Pixabay Report

    #22

    I was on holiday with my husband and three kids in New Zealand (visiting from Australia where we live). We drove into a petrol station to fill up with fuel. Right in front of the bowser we pulled up at was a massive poster advertising Queenstown NZ which featured my husband and I on bikes with our kids (smaller then) being doubled on our bikes. Our third baby just growing in my tummy.

    It was an image that was randomly photographed (our consent was given) 4 years prior when we had last visited this place, and was subsequently used in an ad campaign - which we had no idea about! Very spooky and kinda cool.

    Franki Starkey Report

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    Debby Keir
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Reminds me of a true story I read - elderly parents went to stay with married daughter who was a photographer. Whilst there, they sampled bouncing around on the grandkids trampoline, and daughter took some pictures of them obviously enjoying themselves. They came out well, and asked if she could sell them to a 'stock photo' company. They agreed. Several years later, someone sent one of them a birthday card - the front picture was of them on the trampoline with the tag - you don't have to be young to have fun' or somesuch.

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    #23

    Nurse in blue scrubs sitting on a hospital floor, experiencing an astonishing coincidence. I was working in an Emergency Room in Atlanta, Georgia. We had a new doctor who had just finished her residency in Boston. She was working her second shift with us when an ambulance came in. She looked at the patient on the stretcher and said, “Hey. I know him.”

    She followed the stretcher to his room and said, “Randy, why are you in Georgia?” He looked up at her shocked and said, “Ah s**t. I can't get away from you can I?”

    Apparently he had been a "Frequent Flyers" at her previous hospital and she had just taken care of him several days before leaving Boston the previous week.

    it must have been shocking for him to take a bus to Atlanta and have the same Doctor take care of him. There are a lot of hospitals in America, the odds of the frequent flyer picking the same hospital in the same state, in the same city, on the same day, on the same shift that the same doctor was working was insane to comprehend.

    Keith Albert , wavebreakmedia_micro Report

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    Debby Keir
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Was he *good* frequent flyer (ie had various real health issues) - or was he a d**g seeker? Important difference as to the type of frequent flyer, but her previous knowledge of him would be medically helpful in either case.

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    #24

    Man in a light green shirt on a train, looking at his phone, experiencing an astonishing coincidence. This happened to me recently.
    Background : My parents created my profile on one of the matrimonial websites to find a suitable match for me. They keep searching over it. They send or receive proposals/requests over there.

    Scene 1 : One evening, I came from office and saw my mom going through the profiles of girls who had sent the request to start a conversation further. My mom showed me the picture of a girl. She accepted the request from a girl and hence my phone number became visible to that particular girl as she had a premier membership on that website.

    Scene 2 : Same day, at night, I received a call from an unknown number. (My mom had added my number unconsciously while creating the profile) I picked up the phone. The lady on the other side explained that she had sent a request/proposal for her daughter as she liked my profile and the request was accepted from my side in the evening. I told her that my mom had created my profile and it would be better if she talks with my mom directly for this matter. She asked me basic details about my job and told about her daughter. She said, she would talk to my mother and took her phone number.

    Scene 3 : Next morning, I boarded the metro train from Kashmere gate metro station (Delhi) on yellow line towards Central Secretariat (My office). The moment I entered the metro, I saw a girl who was standing opposite to me. She started staring at me (I was also doing the same else how would I know that she was staring at me ? :D ).

    I thought I have seen the girl somewhere. By her continuous staring, I thought, she must be thinking the same. I started thinking about her with full concentration . After 2 mins, I realized she is the same girl whose profile my mom showed me last evening on the matrimonial website and her mother called me later in the night.

    I had doubts about it. Instantly, I messaged my mom to whatsapp me the picture of that particular girl whose proposal she accepted last evening on that matrimonial website. She sent me the screenshots of her profile. I kept staring her and looked at my phone several times to confirm.

    By this time, the girl had also realized what I was doing or trying to do. She was also clear about her doubts (I thought so) and recognized me (I thought this too).

    Eventually, I took the courage and turned my phone’s screen towards her and asked “ Is this You ?”

    She was already smiling like a little kid, her face filled with innocence and shyness.

    She nodded her head and said “Yes, I recognized you”.

    Aashish Arora , Sanket Mishra Report

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    Jeremy Klaxon
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Casually talking about how their parents are arranging their marriage feels otherworldly to... well, the rest of the world, I guess

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    #25

    A newborn baby wrapped in a blanket, held by a nurse, showcasing an astonishing coincidence. This is an actual conversation I had with my wife, maybe a while after marriage

    Note: I’m from India and my wife is from Sri Lanka - 2 different countries. Close by, but still different countries

    Me: Hey where were you born?
    Wife: In Trichy, India
    Me: Damn, me too… Which hospital?
    Wife: xyz maternity hospital
    Me: No way, me too…
    Me: With enough hesitation, any chance you would know the doctor who brought you into the world?
    Wife: Why not? Mrs.Sheela
    Me: No f**king way; She was the one that brought me into the world

    Here we were, married, born in the same city and hospital, delivered by the same doctor.

    PS: A few of the commenters can’t fathom the fact I haven’t asked these questions. I don’t think I would have been interested in knowing the hospital my wife was born in, though I know the country she was born.

    Manoj Ganapathy , Jonathan Borba Report

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    Sven Horlemann
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Now I am wondering whether to ask my wife of 34 years where she was born and what the name of the doctor was. Humph. I would not know this if she asked me...

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    #26

    Astonishing coincidence: moon and cloud alignment resembling an eye in the night sky. It was July 20, 1963 and I was on a road trip around the USA with 3 buddies. Our first goal was to see the eclipse of the sun, visible in Maine. We found the point where the eclipse path crossed the Appalachian Trail, and it was near a mountain top. (It was close to Mt. Katahdin, but I don’t think it was that mountain.) The spot looked perfect. We hiked up to the peak. As I recall, the eclipse was to occur in the afternoon.

    As the sun was gradually covered by the moon, we could feel the temperature dropping. But also—we saw the sky getting more and more covered by clouds! An hour before the eclipse, I could see only a few small patches of blue sky. From the mountain top I could see the small spots of sunlight hitting the distant trees from those few openings in the clouds.

    Fifteen minutes before totality, I notice a distant spot of sunlight that moved as the cloud opening moved. I fantasized that it was heading our way, and would reach us just in time for totality. Indeed, it did seem to be moving our direction. It was almost impossible to estimate its velocity. But it was coming closer! Five minutes to totality. It was closer. Oh my God! One minute to totality and still the sun was covered over. Then the sun came out! We were flooded with a dim sunlight from a thin arc of light where the sun still peeked through. It sudden grew distinctly darker and I saw — Baily’s beads! I knew those were the tiny spots visible just before an eclipse as the sun peeks through valleys on the rim of the Moon. Then …

    Totality! It was one of the most spectacular moments in my life. The Corona seemed to shoot out, even though I knew it was really just being revealed as the sky darkened. The corona had looked yellow in the photos I had seen; here in real life it had a distinctly red tinge. I aimed my camera and snapped, with no idea if the photo would come out. Just as I did that … a Baily’s bead appeared again. The crescent appeared. And the clouds once again covered the sun. The few dozen people who had been on the top of the peak all cheered.

    As I hiked down I spoke to everyone I passed. (I was a teenager and a fast hiker.) Nobody had seen the eclipse except the few of us at the peak. I asked many people when we got down to the road. No, they hadn’t seen it, although they had experienced the darkening and the cooling.

    The photo did turn out, and I still have it. Here it is, the total eclipse of the Sun taken in the tiny window that peeked between the clouds. I had been incredibly lucky to be in the right spot at the right time. You can see the corona and a single Baily Bead just appearing.

    Richard Muller Report

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    #27

    Driver adjusting car radio, illustrating insane coincidences and surprises. There were a number of strange coincidences that occurred to me and others in and around the 6 month period from April 2007, when my 16 year old son Kyle passed away suddenly, and unexpectedly from a brain hemorrhage.

    They began just a few weeks before he died, when the step father of his girlfriend drowned in a diving accident. He stayed with her constantly, supporting her and comforting her. On the day of the funeral Kyle travelled to the crematorium by taxi with their group of friends when he (as relayed to me separately by two people present) calmly asked them what they would do 'when' he died; my son proceeded to ask his best friend to take care of his (Kyle's) girlfriend as she would have two losses to cope with.

    Almost 4 weeks later, on 15th April 2007, my son created a single page on MySpace with a profound statement about life filling the page. He also had music playing automatically when the page was opened. The song ironically was 'How to save a life' by The Fray.

    The following day, Kyle died.

    A month or so after Kyle's funeral, I was driving alone in my car listening to local radio. Suddenly the broadcast stopped and there was around 10 seconds of dead air; a song broke the silence, blurting out from the start of the chorus, '...How to save a life...'.

    I told my husband what happened, and I was quite shaken up, but he said it was probably just a glitch by the radio station and it was brushed off.

    A few days later exactly the same thing happened. I concluded that the station were having technical issues and maybe this particular song is what they always cut to.

    Another few days passed and my husband and I went shopping in the car. I decided to listen to a different station and flicked through to find one we liked. No sooner had I chosen a station when the sound cut out; my husband and I both visibly jumped when the chorus 'How to save a life...' jarred the silence. We had to pull over to take in what had just happened, yet to this day we cannot explain it?

    Incidentally, Kyle's best friend did indeed look after his girlfriend, so much so that they fell in love and moved in together. Alas it wasn't to be and they split up 2 years later.

    There are a number of other incredulous coincidences that have occurred since Kyle passed away, but I will leave them for another post...

    Dawn McManus , Getty Images Report

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    Ruth Watry
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My cousin lost her finance to a brain infection a few years after high school. She and his best friend helped each other through it and 3 years later they eloped. They just celebrated their 45th anniversary, and her late fiancé's parents are grandparents to their children

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    #28

    Two stunning sunset skies showcasing insane coincidences with matching colors and clouds over different landscapes. I befriended a Colombian guy at my university. One day I was showing him pictures of my trip to Santa Marta, Colombia and he suddenly exclaimed:

    “Man, that sunset looks really familiar”
    “What, dude? There’s no way”
    “Hold up, I think I have a photo
    “WHAAAAT —- Holy ****, this can’t be real”

    And there it was, a picture of the same exact sunset taken within 3 minutes of mine. We couldn’t stop laughing. We just realized that we were in the same city at the same time, weeks before we actually met thousands of miles away.

    Here’s the sunset from my point of view (island in tayrona), and below is his ( santa marta)

    Fadi Francis Report

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    Ionescu Popa
    Community Member
    3 days ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    the sun, the up direction, the squared shape of the picture, everything fits...

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    #29

    Coincidence #1:

    Attending University of Florida, I began research on my senior project in Computer Science. Since this was in the pre-Internet era, I used the library. I went into the Engineering Library and consulted Computer and Control Abstracts, a huge index of published literature in the computing field. From there, I identified four articles that might be helpful in my project of choice. I was able to find three of them in the vast holdings of the Engineering Library, but they didn't really pan out. The fourth sounded much more promising, but I couldn't find it. It was in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence, Volume 4, number 6, published by the North Holland Publishing Company. I had never heard of the journal or the publisher before. I was very impressed by the huge number of periodicals available in the long corridors of floor-to-ten-foot-ceilings of the engineering library, but I didn't see that journal.

    I consulted the reference librarian. She confirmed that the UF engineering library didn't subscribe to that journal. She also said it wasn't in the main library buildings across campus, but maybe Florida State had it, and I could get it on an interlibrary loan from them in 6 weeks or so. (That would be totally useless to a student with a due date.) I wasn't really sure what to do next -- I really needed a starting point for this project.

    I had a class scheduled the next period downstairs. It was a computer science class, but not the same one for which I was researching. I went straight there from the library. I mentioned my research to no one.

    I was barely seated at my desk in class, when a friend of mine walked in and without a word put a magazine on my desk. It was -- The Journal of Artificial Intelligence, Volume 4, Number 6.

    I was speechless. I somehow managed to ask where he got it. He said a friend of his had written off asking about subscribing. He had found it way too expensive for a student, but they had sent him a sample issue -- this was it. Anyway, the friend had lent it to him and he just thought I might be interested in it.

    The article was everything I had hoped it would be. I completed my senior project successfully.

    Coincidence # 2

    This story is from before web-based genealogy research became feasible on the internet. I had never done any genealogy research on my family. One day I was in my local library in Florida, which had a modest genealogy section. I began to browse the genealogy stacks at random with the intent of becoming familiar with the available genealogy resources. About the second document I picked up was an unbound collection of photocopied pages stapled together entitled A Compilation of the Descendants of [omitted] and [redacted]. I had never heard of any family connection to those surnames. However, I opened it up at random, and saw my mother's name! She was one of those descendants. So, in my first five minutes as a genealogist, seven generations of my ancestry was revealed.

    This was not a local hometown document. It was from Georgia and mostly about Georgia and I was in Florida.

    I proceeded to photocopy the pages so I would have it at home. On getting home with the copy, I saw a faint image of an address label on the title page. It was the name and address of my great aunt in Atlanta! She had been dead 10 years at that point, so I was not able to ask her how this came to be. Apparently, she had possession of a previous copy of this document at one time. She had never said anything about genealogy to my mom or to me. I can only suppose that she had sent a copy of this document to my local library in the hope that we would become interested in genealogy sooner or later and find it. If so, it worked! Why she wouldn't have sent us a copy directly I don't know.

    Jamie Cox Report

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    Ionescu Popa
    Community Member
    2 days ago

    This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

    duh, of course u didnt, no one is called omitted and redacted these days...

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    #30

    Person with a yellow backpack and suitcase walking through an airport corridor, experiencing an astonishing coincidence. I was travelling to Bangalore from London to attend my sister's wedding. I had booked a ticket for 19th October and her wedding was scheduled to be on 25th October.

    When I went to the airport, I found out that the flight was overbooked and they had offloaded me. The staff was very rude and would not hear anything. They were literally pushing people away. That being the holiday season, there were many people like me(atleast 50).

    So I went back and emailed my travel desk to sort this out for me. I decided not to inform my family immediately as it would be night time and my family will be sleeping in India. I went to sleep around 11PM. After half an hour my phone started ringing. When I checked it was my sister. I was worried why is she calling me at that time (around 5AM in India).

    So I picked up the call and this was our conversation.
    Sis: Where are you? How are you able to pick my call? Are you not travelling now?
    Me:(Trying to sound calm) I am in London. I could not fly. There was some problem in the passenger list. I will fly tomorrow.
    Sis: (Sobbing now).. I knew it.
    Me: Know what??
    Sis: I just got a dream, you were not let to fly by the airlines staff. They said you can fly a week later I.e. 26th October. You will not be able to attend my wedding.

    I was shocked to hear that, because that was the exact thing the airline staff had told me that I should take the flight on 26th October.
    I assured her I will be flying the next day as my travel desk is sorting it out.
    Luckily, my travel desk could get me on the flight next day and I attended the wedding.
    This incident happened almost a decade ago. We were not aware that the passengers can be offloaded for no fault of theirs till that day.
    Edit1: Thank you for your upvotes. I never thought it would be read by so many people.
    Answering few of the questions :
    Why did I go anonymous?
    This was the first answer I wrote I was not sure how does this work and how judgemental people will or will not be. I have no experience in writing. I had lots of self doubts. But when I saw this question I wanted to share this experience of mine so I chose to be anonymous.

    I had a link for editing this answer but, I did not know how to view the answer or comments. I had tried searching it few times earlier. As there are many answers to this question, I got lost. Today searched based on the content in my answer and I got lucky. Still can't believe the number of people who viewed this. I am not sure if I can reply to the comments here. Please let me know if I can do that and I am more than happy to answer.
    Airlines name: It was Srilankan Airlines

    For all the comments who think it is a made up story:
    I used to work for an IT company in Bangalore and the client office was in London. I was on deputation. When the travel agent books the ticket, they book an open ticket for 6 months. According to that my return date in the onward ticket issued was 26th October. My sister's wedding was initially planned for July which later got moved to October 25th. So I requested the travel desk to issue me the ticket for 19th. They did the same and the old ticket was also attached to it.

    My co worker was travelling with me. She had the exact scenario in terms of the dates and ticket issuing.

    We reached earlier than expected and there was a huge rush near the counter. There were many people travelling to Sri Lanka for the vacations. People were shouting, screaming, crying but the staff at the counter were very rude and literally pushing people away. We somehow reached the front of the desk and showed our tickets and they said come back after a week. When I showed the rescheduled ticket they relooked at it and showed the 26th from the previous ticket and started shouting at me whereas my coworker was allowed to go inside and travel. I was gullible, worried and started crying and asked them to verify the date again. They just pushed me away.

    When I got in touch with my managers, they took this up with the travel desk and the travel agent agreed Sri Lankans airlines does this often. I was told it became a highest level of escalation to the travel company and they tried very hard to get me a seat the next day.

    Annalise Cameron , Getty Images Report

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    Kelly Scott
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    For a minute, I thought that photo was of the Seattle ferry building in the corridor that leads to the ferry.

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    #31

    Young girl smiling with a backpack, standing outdoors, experiencing an astonishing coincidence. Coincidence #1: (The awkward coincidence)

    I was 12 back then. I had a HUGE crush on this classmate of mine. She was the prettiest I had ever seen (or atleast that’s what I felt at that time). Her eyes were tantalising and her smile cherubic. She was very outspoken and belonged to an economically forward family. Basically a posh, rich, cute chic (I regret using that word here instead of just saying a ‘girl’). Me on the other hand was a socially awkward, introvert person and belonged to an ‘average’ family. I could neither speak English nor Hindi fluently. Basically, a timid, vulnerable South Indian capable of freaking you out instantly.

    But as days went by, I started gaining confidence, I became more sociable and very soon I metamorphosed into this gregarious, outspoken personality. I also developed into a very successful athlete. I started winning medals for my school at state and national level events. It was a big deal back then. Soon, I was to become the face of my school athletics. My success was soaring high and I was in a great position.

    At this point, she (let’s call her Miss G) would slowly start noticing me. It might be during school breaks, after school or while just walking on the road back home but it was there and I started noticing this. But Miss G was very careful not to encourage me. So, hmmm…I encouraged myself. One day I went out to her and started a conversation. Miss G was shocked that I actually attempted to speak to her because none of the other guys did (A typical school love story!). Anyways, to cut short the story (and to prevent this answer from becoming my ‘pocket autobiography’), we started spending a lot of time together. It was great fun. She even introduced me to her parents. I even went to their house to meet her at times. But soon it all ended.

    If the western world suffers from racism, Eastern world suffers from classism. Especially in India, classism is highly prevalent even today. A posh, rich Miss G belonging to a ‘higher class’ of the society thought she was losing her ‘self-esteem’ by mingling with the so-called ‘backward’ class. Life lesson learnt at quite an early age. Anyways that’s for another answer. Within a month we stopped talking or even glancing at each other. End of the story. Life moved on.

    Years and years went by. I was 23 then and in a different country all-together. I had come to the UK to do my PhD and was experiencing the best moments of my life. For the first time in my life, I was experiencing a truly multi-cultural environment. People from China, Malaysia, England, Scotland, Australia, America, Kazakhstan, Russia, Serbia, Greece and ofcourse my fellow Indians from several different states of India. The first month went by like a dream at the speed of light. Welcome events, parties, get-togethers, socials and what not.

    In one such social, I met a girl. She was standing quietly at one corner of a pub. Our eyes clashed and perhaps both of us thought it would now be too rude to avoid each other. So, I went up to her and started a conversation. We initially spoke about which part of India we hailed from and gradually our conversation steered more in the lines of what course we were into and why did we choose UK for higher studies. We struck a chord instantly, in a good, decent way. I really liked the way she spoke about random stuffs with great attention to details. But there was something striking about this girl’s face that kept ringing a bell in my head. I could almost connect the dots in my head but never could get the complete picture.

    Anyways, time passed by and we became quite good friends. Very thick friends to be honest. We would make trips around the country, just sit outside in the lawns and talk about random stuffs and so on. A potential relationship was imminent.

    And then came the D-day.

    Once during a conversation with her, she started speaking about her cousin sister. She described her with great fervour and painted a beautiful picture of the lady. The description was resplendent and I was getting really curious about this new character. So, I asked her if she could share a picture of her sister. As in, show me her cousin sister. She obliged.

    I see her standing besides a girl who looked almost identical to her (bell 1 struck). I see her standing besides a posh, rich and a cute chic (bell 2 struck). I see her standing besides…(my neurons sending signals abruptly)….besides…(random thoughts and pictures enter my mind)…besides…

    Miss G.

    I did not know what to tell or do. My sweat glands were over-working and my adrenaline was experiencing its own adrenaline. Just to confirm, I asked her about Miss G’s school. That was enough.

    We never met again. Our story was only destined for an answer in Quora.

    Coincidence #2: (The delightful coincidence)

    After completing my Masters from a different University in UK, I also worked part-time at a chicken restaurant, analogous to Nando’s. The owners were Indians (has to be!) and they almost always had this vehement criterion when choosing people to work- Only Indian guys/girls for their restaurant. The reason was obvious. The only reason I could think of is that only with fellow Indians, they could have the freedom to deploy their ‘Indian style of treating employees’ tactics on us. But that’s a whole new chapter and exclusively saved for another answer.

    So, I start working and I was not completely surprised by their expectations. They expected me to run around with dishes like Usain bolt, cook like Gordon Ramsey, serve like a recent hospitality/hotel management graduate, smooth-talk customers like Steve Jobs, wash dishes at the rate of a dish-washer and most importantly, have a delightful smile always, no matter how much they stress me out. Anyways, my owners are not the protagonist of this answer.

    A few weeks later, there came a new guy who was also from India (but a different part of India). Let’s call him Mr. M. Since I was his senior by a few weeks, I had to tutor Mr. M to do things and also explain him the Do’s (Work) and Dont’s (Rest) of the restaurant. We didn’t really connect that well initially since he felt that I was bossing him around. Also, Mr. M was a very reserved person.

    Now, I was an Immunology graduate. And my ambition was to work on Tissue Engineering and obtain a PhD in the same subject. One day, while working, I eaves-dropped on Mr. M’s phone conversation he was having with his someone. Little did I know that this new guy was also an Immunologist. And coincidentally, he also wanted to pursue Tissue Engineering discipline through a PhD. (No, am not daft. This is not the coincidence I am going to talk about). I gladly opened up to Mr. M about myself and that I had plans along the same lines.

    So every day, in the chicken restaurant, while dumping the left-overs (surprisingly a lot) and washing the plates of some ignorant people, all we used to talk about was tissue engineering news. We used to talk about the different types of synthetic hydrogels that could be used to act as a great ad-hoc environment for the cells to grown in. Pure nerdy stuff at a chicken restaurant.

    But we both had one thing in common. Both of us hadn’t yet received a PhD studentship. It was an absolute arduous task to obtain a funded PhD in Tissue Engineering and the fact that both of us were international candidates just made things worse for us. The number of contacted professors, lecturers and even pharma companies were just innumerable with no hope.

    We both used to encourage each other in our applications. Most of the times, we used to dream of working on our dream project. And just as we were in the depths of our dream. Bleeeeeeep! Internal phone call from the Owner! That bleep was just a harbinger of impending danger equivalent to an Impala hearing the walk of a leopard. Not just our ears but also our dreams would get shattered.

    One fine day, Mr. M got into some serious acrimonious argument with the owners of the shop. Like I said, Indian shop owners like to do things the ‘Indian’ way. They sacked him from the job on the spot. I do not know if they paid his balance salary of that month but Mr. M was never to be seen. The not-so-funny part was that I was off work that day and this incident was recounted to me by another member of staff.

    Time flew by. Almost a year after I left the job at the chicken shop, I finally managed to get a PhD. My joys knew no bound when I received the news of a confirmed offer. I was in India at that time. Within a month- visa received, shopping done, bags packed, flight boarded, Boom in UK!

    First day of my PhD, I enter a particular room for my induction. And guess, who I encounter right besides the door?

    Mr. M (as shocked and grinning as I was!)

    I cannot recall my exact thoughts but it was something in the lines of “Damn! Not you again! (in a funny way)

    I guess his reaction was something like “Do you still wash plates?! How do they pay you these days”

    We laughed and laughed the whole day. It was one of the best bondings ever. Two scientist hailing from a tormented chicken shop. That was the story of scientific journey with extra hot Peri-Peri sauce.

    We are still great friends. And we still meet the owners.

    Anyways, that’s my story-telling for the day! Cheers.

    Pranav Vasanthi , M.saad Report

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    #32

    This happened while my wife and I were engaged, waaaay back in 2002.

    So, quick back story: My fiancee and I were engaged just before she got her dream job in Livorno, Italy (just outside of Pisa). It was a great opportunity for her career, and she had to go. I couldn’t go with her, as I was in the military at the time and assigned to Washington D.C. Her position was a contract position of sorts, and was for 18 months. So, we said our goodbyes, and planned a wedding while we were a world apart (and yes, it was a happy ending. We’re still married to this day)

    That’s the first thing that is important to know about this story. The second thing is that my wife’s first name is “Blythe”. Albeit a very pretty name, you have admit it’s an unusual one.

    Okay… so the story…
    I managed to scrape some money together and fly over to visit her on three occasions. On one of the trips we had gone on a road trip to Venice (we didn’t even know until we got there that it was Carnivale! Woo hoo!)

    Anyway, we spent the whole day there, had a great time, and headed back. It was late… Like 11 pm. We were in the middle of nowhere and I remember we somehow found a lovely restaurant that was open. Anyway, we sat down and were the only people there. As we were ordering, three young women came in and started talking with the hostess.

    We quickly surmised that they were Americans. So we called them over and chatted with them. They explained that they were sightseeing and heading up to France. They just stopped to get dinner. Then the introductions came.

    “I’m Blythe” my wife said.

    “Really?” one of the girls said, “So am I… and so is she.” and she pointed at one of her friends.

    So grasp this if you can: Prior to this, the only “Blythe” I have ever personally known in any way was my wife. The only other person I have ever heard of with this name is Blythe Danner, the actress….

    Jason Wells Report

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    Ionescu Popa
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    could that iraqi guy stop asking how they had money to visit italy? they worked, you can work too!

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    #33

    Empty hospital bed under soft lighting, symbolizing an astonishing coincidence scenario. My father was a naval officer, so we lived in a lot of places - some fairly unusual. When I was 13, we moved to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Our home was 8500' above sea-level and 600 miles from the Red Sea - not a place you'd expect to find US Navy.

    Dad got to know the Marines in the security detachment at the US Embassy well, and one day Bob, the Gunnery Sergeant, came to him with an unusual request. His fiancee Carol was coming to Addis; they were to be married at the embassy. Bob wanted my dad to stand-in for her father - to give the bride away. My dad agreed immediately. In fact the reception was at our home.

    A few months later Bob got orders; he and Carol left Ethiopia, promising to keep in touch. A year later, on a Thursday in September, Bob was walking into the American Embassy in Amman Jordan on his day off; he'd forgotten something. One of the on-duty Marines asked, "Hey Gunny, weren't you in Addis before you came here? Some Americans from there were in a car accident on their way back from Petra. Do you know anyone on this list?"

    My name was on that list. You can read about my NDE in another thread. Bob sent the ambulance which brought me from the government aid station, in the middle of nowhere, to a private hospital, in Amman, the next day. He cabled my parents that I was seriously injured; that they needed to come at once. For the next two days, until my father arrived, every time I opened my eyes either Bob or Carol was sitting next to my bed.

    Probably just coincidence.

    Near-Death Experiences: What is it like to have a near-death experience?

    Geoffrey Walton , freepik Report

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    #34

    "Two men side by side, showcasing insane coincidences with strikingly similar features." Enzo Ferrari, founder of Ferrari (on the left), died in 1988. Mesut Özil, footballer (on the right), was born in 1988.

    Amritendu Dey Report

    #35

    In high school in the early 70’s I had a crush on a guy named Michael McCabe. A magazine article suggested casting a love spell, burning pink candles, chanting, etc… to gain your crush’s attention. So I cast this spell, planning to get his attention at the next school dance in 2 weeks.

    The night of the dance comes, and I'm sitting in the back of the gym on the bleachers listening to music, very disappointed because Michael McCabe wasn't at the dance. While sitting there, another guy sat down next to me and said hello. I said hello back, and being the obsessed nerd I was, my idea of small talk was to say “"Do you know Michael McCabe?” He smiled and nodded. Then he scooted closer and said “"What?” The music was really loud, so I repeated my question. “"Do you know Michael McCabe?” He frowned at me, then pulled out his wallet and showed me his drivers license. He was new at this high school and his name was Michael McCabe. We ended up hanging out together the rest of the evening and had a good time, so my spell actually worked, just not how I'd planned.

    That was 1973 and I haven't met another Michael McCabe since.

    Joanie Gail Boyle Report

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    #36

    I was an officer in the Army going to flight school for helicopter pilots in Texas. This was during the buildup in Vietnam so there were many potential pilots and few places to live. I fortunately had rented a house and was living alone. One day I met another flight student who was living in a converted gas station and having a constant cold because it was wet and dank, (which is not good when you fly). I told him to pack up and come live with me which he did. We became fast friends and even had a dog which we named Bud, after the beer we liked to drink. We ended up with a fairly large circle of friends who also were potential helicopter pilots. The primary flight course was completed and while about ninety percent of the class was sent to Alabama to complete the advanced rotary wing course, he and I and our friends were selected to go to Georgia.

    In Georgia, we lived on the Atlantic Ocean in an old resort, completed flight school, partied, met each others girl friends and gave the dog to a painter from Maine.

    You see, everyone who completed flight school was automatically sent to Vietnam. We knew that and accepted it. He was sent to Vietnam 30 days before I was, and when you were given orders you receive only an APO number (Army Post Office, much like a zip code). Now there were several thousand helicopter pilots in Vietnam stationed from the DMZ to the Mekong Delta and who knew where you would end up. I flew to Vietnam, was assigned to a division, was assigned to a battalion, was further assigned to an assault helicopter company stationed in a small rubber plantation. The company assigned me to a hooch and eventually to a two man room in the hooch. I grabbed the empty bed and in walked my old roommate. What a lucky coincidence.

    Three months later he flew out on a mission and never returned. It seems that he was involved in a mid air collision and he and seven others were killed. The military investigates all mid air collisions and writes a report. I ended up writing friends and family about his death, but the military would not give me the results of their investigation since I was not family, so I couldn’t tell them much.

    Approximately six months later I was tasked to investigate another mid air collision (another great story) and was given an old file which if I followed, would show me how to do a complete and thorough investigation. Imagine my surprise when I opened the file and found it contained the details of the death of my roommate.

    Paul Hanson Report

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    #37

    Man hitchhiking on a rural road with observatories in the background, illustrating an astonishing coincidence. Oh, I could tell a hundred stories.

    For instance, I am hitchhiking from Riga to Moscow. At some point, I stop a car and the driver agrees to take me. We start to speak. In few minutes, we discover that we’ve both studied at the same faculty and we have lots of common friends.

    Or else…

    I am in the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, Netherlands. I hear a couple speaking Russian. I address them in the same language and we start to talk. They live in Canada for 30 years, having emigrated from St. Petersburg. When I tell them I am from Moscow, they smile: Oh, we do know one person from Moscow. This “one person” is the professor Dmitriev, someone I know very well. A week later, in the huge French National Library in Paris, someone touches my shoulder. It is Dmitriev.

    Or else…

    There was a moment in my life that I was obsessed with two songs. Both in Russian. One was about Istanbul. Another one was about silkworms. It was then that a Turkish friend invited me to her wedding. I walked around Istanbul and remembered the song about Istanbul. And few days later, in another Turkish city, when visiting a school, they told me: Oh, we need to show you something special. Our pets. It were silkworms.

    Ok, ok, I stop. I have really many stories of that kind. Are these coincidences? I am not quite sure of that.

    Alexey Tereshchenko , freepik Report

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    #38

    My wife and I backpacked around Vietnam for three weeks. One place we stayed in had a television so while I was waiting for my wife to get ready to go out one night I flicked on the TV to see what Vietnamese viewing was like. We could only get reception on a few channels and since the other two were Vietnamese talk shows I left it on a program that was doing current affairs in English. It was a strange mixture of footage from Australian programs so I recognised the presenter from TV back home.

    I had the TV on for about five minutes while I waited and was about to switch it off when I looked up and saw my brother on the screen. The network was showing a program from Australia about marriage and it included couples showing excerpts of their wedding videos. My brother officiated at the wedding of one couple and so he was clearly visible on the screen for about ten seconds.

    When I got back to Australia I mentioned this to my brother. He had no idea he'd been on Aussie TV let alone replayed on Vietnamese TV. I can say with almost one hundred percent confidence that my brother has only appeared on Vietnamese TV for ten seconds in the entire time they've been broadcasting, it blows me away to think that it happened to occur in the ten minutes of Vietnamese TV that I happened to be watching.

    David Stewart Report

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    #39

    Close-up of seasoned raw steak garnished with rosemary, highlighting an insane coincidence in culinary presentation. I was listening to an episode of “This American Life” about coincidences a few years ago while at work and was reminded of a strange scenario that happened **around** Christmas of 2000. As soon as the podcast was over, I relayed the memory to two of my coworkers: my mom talked my dad and my two brothers and I into going to one of her friend’s houses for Christmas dinner. I hated that kind of s**t but I agreed because it was going to make my mom happy.

    This was back in Chicago and her friend was/is apparently a relatively famous psychic. I didn’t ask too many questions because my parents have lots of crazy friends so I was like, whatever. At any rate, when we arrived I was the first to approach the front door. After knocking, I see this tall lanky bald dude with a santa hat walk up to the door through the window. He looks familiar and when he opens the door he yells, “Merry Christmas!” That’s normal. What’s not normal is that it’s Billy Corgan from the “Smashing Pumpkins”. I look back at my brother and give him a look that says, “is the f*****g for real?” and we all go inside.

    So we’re all hanging out drinking spiked eggnog and chowing down on this amazing roast beef that the psychic’s husband made with his secret Coca Cola marinade recipe (important for later), and at no point in the night did it come up that we were hanging with Billy Corgan. It was just my family (5 of us) the host family (Mom, dad, teenage daughter and son) and Bill Corgan. The Smashing Pumpkins may or may not have been broken up at that point but they were not so far removed from being one of the biggest bands on the planet, so this was kinda crazy.

    But this is not the coincidence.

    My coworkers noted the story was weird, but not a coincidence. This is where I think it gets crazy. After work I go to this part time job I used to have and I start telling a couple of other coworkers about both the podcast and my Billy Corgan story. One of the guys I told, Greg, is probably 15 years older than me and we rarely worked with one another since we were both part time.

    At any rate, when I get to the Billy Corgan part of the story, Greg was like, “Wait, are you talking about Sonia?” WTF. YES! The psychic was married to Greg’s brother — the guy with the kick-a*s Coca Cola beef marinade. When I told him about the recipe, he was like, “That’s MY recipe!” I was floored.

    So to recap, the Christmas dinner happened over 15 years ago in Chicago. Now I live in Los Angeles. I happen to hear a podcast about coincidences and am reminded of a strange, but non-coincidence memory about Billy Corgan, his psychic friend, and her husband’s kick-a*s Coca Cola beef recipe. Then that same day I relay this story to a coworker who I rarely work with and it turns out that it’s his secret Coke beef recipe and it’s his brother’s house/family involved in the Christmas dinner.

    These things always seem more crazy to the people that they happen to, but I think this is a weird one nonetheless.

    Eon McLeary , Curated Lifestyle Report

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    #40

    I was leaving Spain by train, and as you may know the gauge of the tracks between Spain and France is different, so you have to get off one train and onto another as you cross the border. The trains are timed so that you literally get off one, walk across about 20 feet of platform, and onto the other.

    When I reached border station where you switch, I exited the train and as I was walking across the platform I saw a childhood friend I had not seen in many years walking towards me. Had he been on one train car in either direction, we would not have seen each other. And of course, had he not been entering Spain as I was exiting, at precisely the same time, we would not have crossed paths.

    We had enough time for about 30 seconds of “Hello, how’ve you been?” and then had to board our respective trains heading in opposite directions.

    I have not seen him since. That was over 50 years ago.

    Gerry Langeler Report

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    #41

    People experiencing an astonishing coincidence while dancing in a vibrant, colorful club atmosphere. Well if you've ever heard about the fabled s*x clubs in New Jersey, I don't know about now, but they sure did have them in the past. I had a guy I was dating drag me to 1. Thought it might be interesting. I wouldn't go to another, But it definitely WAS interesting. People were very friendly. We got in as a group of newbies and a very nice young lady was showing us around the different rooms where different things happen. Large room for group dex, smaller rooms for couples, places for dancing etc.Then telling us rules, like places guys could only go with gneir ladies, and then there was a lovely buffet and drinks were included, and she was just trying to make us feel welcome.. and later another one or two people joined us to tag along at the very end for about 8 minutes or so. We got back to where we started and she asked if anyone had any questions, and all the sudden she got a strange look on her face and stared past the group and said “DAD?”

    Now THAT is a coincidence!!!!

    Annalise Cameron , Getty Images Report

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    #42

    Spring break.
    Our whole family is driving to Washington DC. Eventually, when we're driving through Pennsylvania, we decide to stop at a rest stop.

    We pull up and walk in. We get in line to get food when I look up and say “hey, isn't that K from our school?” My sister looks up and says “Yeah…” and waves to her. Seconds later, I glance at the door, and one of my friends walks in with his family, them having stopped on their way to Baltimore. We sat and ate lunch together.

    Then, while talking, I notice a girl from the grade above us that goes to our school at another table. Not short after, I see a girl from my world history class walk out of the bathroom.

    Finally, as we're about to leave, a man comes up to my sister, who is wearing a sweatshirt with our town name on it and says, “Hey nice sweatshirt, I'm from there too.” And it's not like we're from some big city where hundreds of thousands of people live either.

    Jasper Powers Report

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    Geoffrey Scott
    Community Member
    3 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    We had stopped enoute to Fla from Mich at a rest stop near Macon (I think). Came out after relieving myself only to see a guy we knew from our (pop 2500) town. He and I talked for a minute, but the wives who also knew each other, weren't nearly as impressed and demanded we get going.

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    #43

    TL;DR — I signed up to testify on a bill that was eerily relevant to me.

    Earlier this spring, I had the chance to serve as a Page to my state-level legislature. I spent two non-consecutive weeks in the state capital, hovering about on the Senate floor and watching legislation in action. I made some of my closest friends during those two weeks and I will forever treasure the memories I have.

    On my first day on the job, the Page coordinator explained to us our responsibilities. My official duties included running errands for the elected officials and attending various meetings.

    “During your time here,” the Page coordinator explained, “you can attend Committee hearings. Bills generally go through three readings; the second reading round consists of discussing the bill in a smaller committee and hearing public testimony. Every year, maybe one Page of the hundred or so there are decides to testify on a bill — maybe something that’s personally relevant.”

    And so, in that instant, I mentally resolved to testify on a bill.

    I spent the next two nights poring over Committee catalogues, searching for a bill that I could speak about. Antibiotic resistance? I mean, I’ve read technical papers but what authority does a 17-year-old have?

    Maybe I could talk about oysters? They’re good for the environment, I think?

    I came across Maryland Senate Bill 485 and put a tentative question mark in the margin. Something about remote access to education given certain medical conditions. I’m a high school student, I’ve seen the advent of more digitally-oriented curricula — I could talk about this.

    And so, at 9am the next morning, I signed up to testify on Senate Bill 485. As I put my name down for the 1pm testimony, I noticed a parenthetical note — “Senate Bill 485 (Peyton’s Bill), sponsored by Senator Serafini”. Who was Peyton?

    I pushed the question to the back of my mind and reported to the Senate floor. I spent the next few hours making copies, passing out amendments, and the like. In my downtime, I thought of points I could mention in my testimony. I could talk about the new digital grading and submission system my school system implemented — it’s been pretty effective but has untapped potential. At the end of the Senate session, another Page came up to me.

    “Hey, I’m going to lunch with Senator Serafini. You wanna come with?”

    Only when I was sitting across the table from the Senator did it register in my mind — here was the sponsor for the bill I was about to testify on! I took a bite of my mac and cheese and asked a fateful question. “Senator Serafini, I was just wondering — who’s Peyton?”

    As the senator began to explain, I realized that I’d have to scrap the testimony I’d prepared.
    Senate Bill 485 was proposed in the name of Peyton Walton, a twelve year old cancer survivor. While undergoing treatment, Peyton had to miss school. Her mother worked tirelessly to find a way for Peyton to have access to school. After innumerable calls, emails, and conversations, Peyton was allowed to attend school remotely by way of a robot. Peyton’s Bill aims to allocate $500,000 in the Maryland state budget to remote technology so that other children with cancer or other chronic conditions can attend school. Peyton would be at the hearing, providing testimony of her own.

    It was 12:40pm. I was going to testify in 20 minutes, and the testimony I had prepared (something about inputting grades and implementing curriculum online) was effectively irrelevant. Shoot.

    Suddenly, the gears in my head started to turn. The Page coordinator had said that people tended to testify on things that were personally relevant. Oh my gosh. I’m a pediatric cancer survivor. As I sat outside the Committee hearing room at 12:55pm, I scribbled notes down on a piece of scrap paper. This testimony — haphazard as it was — would be infinitely better than what I’d prepared.

    If you care to hear my testimony, you can click here and go to about 23:30.

    I never really understood the word serendipity until I finished testifying — until those last words left my lips and I became aware of the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

    Shivani Pandey Report

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    SlothyK8
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Ok, but I want to know if the bill passed! (I know..I'll go Google it)

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    #44

    20 years ago, I was an aspiring actor and opera singer, and I became interested in screenwriting. I wrote a spec script of The Simpsons, and in the early days of the internet, I posted on message boards to see if anyone might know how to go about getting such a thing noticed. Incredibly, someone did reach out to me - his name was Rich Miller. Rich is Dennis Miller’s brother, and at the time, he booked stand-up comedians. One of his clients was a guy named Johnny Hardwick, who had just started doing a show called King of the Hill (he played Dale, the paranoid, cuckolded neighbor). So, basically, the thought was that it’s a small world, The King of the Hill people know the Simpsons people, and Rich could get the script to Johnny, who could get it to The Simpsons. Made sense. I mailed a script to Rich and got back to other matters, which included shopping for a new telescope. I was about to spend the summer in Aspen, with beautiful dark skies and clear viewing, so I wanted to get a very high-quality one.

    Again, I took to my search on the internet, and after a while I found pretty much the exact scope I was looking for posted in a classified. I emailed back and forth with the owner, and we scheduled a phone call. Here’s basically how it went:

    “Hi, this is Erik, I’m calling about the telescope.”
    “Oh yeah, hey man, how’s it going?”
    “Good. Just wondering why you’re looking to sell it.”
    “Well, I love the thing, but I just haven’t had time to use it because I ended up getting really busy with this show I started doing.”
    “Oh yeah? Which show?”
    “King of the Hill.”
    OMG.
    “Wait…what’s your name?”
    “Johnny Hardwick.”
    JAW. DROP.
    “Do you know Rich Miller??”
    “Yeah, he used to book me in comedy clubs!”

    JAW. ON. FLOOR.
    After recovering from the shock, I flew to LA. My girlfriend at the time lived there, and she was going to be spending the summer in Aspen with me, so I was already planning to go there to pick her up. As an aside, I called Johnny at work, and his voice mail is still the best I’ve ever heard. It was Mike Judge, as Beavis and Butthead, saying:

    Butthead: Uh….Johnny HARDwick isn’t here right now, so, like, leave a message or somethin’.
    Beavis: Meh heh heh! Hard. Boingggggg!!!
    *Beep*

    We met Johnny, I picked up the scope, dropped off the script, and flew off to Aspen. What are the odds of all this? Gotta be astronomical.

    PS The script was never produced, but I still ended up with a good story.

    Erik Lautier Report

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    Ionescu Popa
    Community Member
    2 days ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    imagine the coincidence, there are only few people so rich in my state, and i met them all.

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    #45

    This happened a long time back so some of the details may be hazy.

    In 2007 I got a not so good rank in IITJEE. Now before the counseling process(where you are allocated a college and a branch based on your rank) you have to get a demand draft of a certain amount made. I was returning from the bank with the IIT invitation letter envelope in my hand.

    I was traveling on the front seat of an auto rickshaw.

    On seeing the envelope the driver, a middle aged man asked me about my rank (6280), and proceeded to tell me that his son had also got selected with a 5600ish rank. I smiled cynically thinking he was just making things up.

    Later I remember telling my mother of the incident and remarking how everyone claims to know someone who clears IIT.

    Fast forward 2–3 months I didn’t get any seat in IIT counseling and got into NIT Surat with a AIEEE(another engineering exam). There I met a boy(who later became and is a good friend) who was from Patna, and whose father worked as a auto rickshaw driver in the area of Patna from which I belong and who had got a 5600ish rank in IITJEE without any coaching and sufficient books or guidance.

    I later came to know that his father was a physics graduate but had failed to secure a job owing to the job crunch in the state.

    I felt petty that day but I learnt something that day. I can’t say that I haven’t judged people since then. But it is a good reminder whenever I do so.

    Avinash Sandilya Report

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    #46

    A few months ago, I went to Chicago to see my wildly-talented singer/songwriter nephew [shameless plug: Luke Metzler play in a small music club as he passed through from Rochester, NY on his way to L.A. After his sound check we went out for a bite to eat and then back to the club where I ran into my neighbor from back home. “What are you doing here?” I asked. She replied that she was there to see her nephew play. That’s right… her nephew, from Austin, TX, was playing on the same bill as my nephew from NY. Same city… same club… same night… same little stage. Either the world of traveling minstrels is much smaller than I thought or there are strange forces at work in the universe that I don’t understand.

    Kurt Metzler Report

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    #47

    I was in a bar with a group of friends on Mykonos in Greece one summer back in the day. Mykonos being what it is, the group were from all over the place. One of the women, an Australian, was leaving the next day, we’d spent a lot of that summer together (great times!). So we were all exchanging home contact details. She gave her phone number in Sydney, my other friend gave hers in London. They were identical except for the international code (of course). Thing is, these two women, although born some 25 years or so apart, were both born on the same date in September. Haven’t seen either of them in years but they were both fabulous.

    Gina Ware Report

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    #48

    I write extensively on lesbian-themed Japanese comics and animation. In 1992 I ran an event in NYC. One of the people who came to the event was a Japanese artist, with whom I have become very close friends. (It's not out of the pale to say we were separated at birth, we're just that in simpatico.)

    In 2004, she invited me to her house in Japan to see a collection she had received from a friend who had, for some years published a lesbian magazine in Japan. In the collection (which is now entirely in my care,) I found a thesis. I took the thesis home, because it was relevant to my research.

    In 2006, I was invited to do a lecture at the Univ. Illinois by the East Asian and Pacific Studies Department. I chose as my topic, the disparate threads of Japanese lesbian community and the Yuri (lesbian comics) community and how they had parallel paths with little interaction until 2003 and are now intertwined. I was writing my lecture, thinking I knew virtually nothing about the Japanese lesbian community in the 1970s, when I remembered the thesis, "Telling Herstory: The Japanese Lesbian Community 1971-2000." Woot.

    I did my lecture (three, actually) and had a great time. The Professor who invited me took me out to dinner with one of the grad students and we chatted about how I got into the topic, etc. At some point, the grad student asked me, "where did you get the info about the lesbian community?" I told him about the thesis. He looked at me with a funny expression and said, "I wrote that."

    In fact, he had. We went back to my room and he looked at the thesis, which I had brought with me to do last minute research. He told me that it was his original copy.

    James Welker, student at the University of Sheffield, had written the thesis and in thanks for all her help, had given the original copy to Hagiwara Mami, publisher of Anise magazine. When Hagiwara-san had decided to clear out her historical Yuri collection, she gave it all to Anise contributor, artist Takashima Rica, who kept it in her family's house in Japan. After she walked into an event I was running in NYC, we became friends and she gave it to me. I used it for a lecture I did at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where James was a grad student.

    I made James autograph the copy of his thesis and we've kept in touch since. ^_^ I keep it right here where I write - you just never know when I'll need another coincidence.

    Erica Friedman Report

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    #49

    LOVE the French filmAmélie (2001). Would have seen it over 5 times for Yann Tiersen's soulful music and Audrey Tautou's indelible performance as the quirky protagonist. Needless to say, I am a fangirl. Now comes the coincidence (s) part:

    1. Ms. Tautou and I share our birthday. Before you think I am being flippant, I know, that's hardly a coincidence. The website OMG Facts takes it one step further and claims that each person shares his or her birthday with approximately 18 million people worldwide. By that logic alone, at least one celebrity should be there for each of the 365 days that comprise a year (not counting February 29) given how sweeping the term 'celebrity' is. So what if this not a coincidence, at least appreciate me for knowing my onions, when it comes to trivia and pop culture ;). Moving on to the next.

    2. Ms. Tautou has donated both her time and money to charities. I work full time for nonprofits and do have my pet charities. Again no biggie, you will say since most celebrities do charity for - PR, feel good factor or genuine goodness of heart. But wait till you see the last one.

    3. Ms. Tautou's father is a dental surgeon and her mother a teacher. My parents have the exact same jobs. I was like, get out!
    Source: Wikipedia page of Audrey Tautou.

    Sudeshna Mukherjee Report

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