Have you ever chanced upon a coincidence so incredible that it left you light-headed? Some things happen in people’s lives are beyond their control. Think about it! No matter what, you cannot expect that your life won’t be affected by a single random event. Even one small detail can unexplainably alter the path you were on. For example, you get stuck on an elevator with someone that leads to a new job opportunity or stumble into another that begins a new friendship. It happens!
I had a good friend one time that told me of incredible coincidence that turned his life full circle. It began thirty years ago after he finished college and was heading out west on a whim. He stopped in Edmonton for a visit with old chums. One evening they went to a popular nightclub where he met a girl to party with. They clicked and went on few more dates. They had a night together before he resumed his journey to Vancouver. Once there, he settled into a job, got married and had a son, his life almost written in stone. Until some years after the couple divorced and my friend returned to Ontario leaving his son behind.
Another decade passed until one day that same Edmonton girlfriend he had dated so long ago noticed a Facebook page with a surname she recognized – it was my friend’s. Reaching out to the contact person on Facebook she was able to identify his father’s first name, the same one as the guy she had hooked up with so many years ago. She wondered if he was the father of her son she had raised on her own?
Soon both young men from the two families were corresponding on social media becoming more curious about whether they might indeed be brothers. They eventually met and decided then to solve the conundrum by submitting samples of their DNA for testing. The results finally returned and proved that they were half-brothers. Both were very relieved as they had become close and wanted it to remain so.
The younger son in Vancouver had one child, the older one three. Now, how to tell Dad? They had it planned out in a way that their father would likely take it in stride rather than react in denial. It was successful and now Dad has two sons and four grandchildren. When he takes a trip out west these days, he makes two visits rather than only the one.
This amazing coincidence has been around since the sixties but bears repeating. Two of America’s presidents, namely Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy, share a multitude of barely believable coincidences. Both were killed from gunshot wounds to the back of the head; both died on a Friday; both died before a celebration (Kennedy was assassinated on the eve of Thanksgiving, Lincoln was killed right before Easter); and each one of them were accompanied by their wife and another couple. But there’s more! Both had a friend called Billy Graham, both had four children, both had secretaries named after the other (Kennedy’s secretary was called Mrs. Lincoln, while Lincoln’s secretary was called John), and both of their successors were vice presidents called Johnson. Incredible!
If the famous writer Mark Twain didn’t predict his own death then it was a major coincidence. He was born in 1835 just as Halley’s Comet was passing over the earth. The comet only passes once every 76 years or so, but Twain predicted that he would die on its next passing. “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835,” he said in 1909. “It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it.” The writer died on the very day of its appearance in 1910.
I had two coincidences happen at the same at a Toronto Maple Leaf game. Between the first and second period I ran into the person who had interviewed me for a job that week and who became my new boss two weeks later. After the second period I met a good friend I hadn’t seen for 15 years. He had recently moved back to Toronto from Australia and we are still in touch. Unfortunately the Leafs lost.
I often wonder if some people I know had met and fell in love with someone different, would they still be on my radar today.
