Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

Coregon — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:31:52 GMT

In 1986 I married a man in Anchorage, Alaska and we moved to Seattle, Washington for his job. He worked everyday for 2 years with a man named "Ed", whom I never met. We later divorced and I moved back to Alaska, but to a different town, 160 miles away from Anchorage. Almost 15 years later, In 2001, while living in this new town in Alaska I started going to a nightclub and singing karaoke. One night a woman came up to talk to me about a song, and we ended up becoming best friends. As we were talking she mentioned her husband's name was Ed. Turns out it was the SAME Ed that my ex worked with for 3 years, in Seattle 15 years earlier! She and Ed had also lived in Anchorage for many years (the town I'd been born and raised in) and they had recently moved to my new town to retire. What's the odd's of meeting a woman here, when we lived in Anchorage together for 20 years, lived in Seattle together for 3 years, with our husbands working together daily, and we never met? Even more strange, about a year later this same friend said she had friends visitng for the weekend from Anchorage and brought them to karaoke. I was shocked and surprised to discover that her friends were my very good friends that I had known for over 30 years! She had met them and become best friends with them in Anchorage years before retiring to my new town. And we never met through them either! And Anchorage is a town of over 250,000 people!

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

Sumaya — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:47:30 GMT

Very bizarre. When I was ten years old I had gone to Egypt and had gotten into a fight with my father in the hotel. I told him I would wait downstairs by the door for him and my brother and walked out and took the elevator. There was a man in the elevator who kept looking at me and started speaking in Arabic to me. I simply stared at him as I don't know any Arabic. Finally I said "I... uh, what? I don't speak Arabic."

To my surprise, he responds in perfect English that I should have said something sooner and asked me where I was from. I told him Chicago, and he was shocked and said that he was also from Chicago and is a lawyer from there.

A few years ago, my mother was still finalizing some issues from my parent's divorce and she had grown sick of her current lawyer. Her new lawyer happened to be that same man from the elevator in Egypt, who also happened to be the lawyer of my friend's mother which we discovered when he wrote down a phone number for her on a piece of scrap paper, which had some information on my parent's divorce on the back.

Coincidences are crazy.

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

Nonononn — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 02:37:15 GMT

Well, i have another coincidence for you.. i've JUST read the same einstein quote in an e-mail sent by my mom.. :P

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

Not Gullible — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:05:22 GMT

Also, though not a weird coincidence, gullible isn't in the dictionary.

I check on just two of the stories -

The two Jim's only shared the same jobs and hobbies.

Joseph Figlock was in a different alley and a different kid fell on him - he was hurt.

The real stories are just as amazing without the false embellishments that just make them, like the title says, "unbelievable."

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

Misses Cee — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:19:15 GMT

Could many of these "same name/same story/different date coincidences' be the result of a newpaper editor's error? Just curious. :)

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

A Storm — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:57:31 GMT

Also, I forgot to tell everyone about a previous trip to FL. My husband and I had a new camera and our son was young. We were at one of those large water parks and my h'band went to take a picture of our son going down the water slide. They slide so fast and he was so far away, it was hard to tell who's who. He realized that it wasn't our son so he took another with the next kid down. That was a correct picture. A couple of weeks later when we had the pictures processed we realized that the first picture was of our sos first cousin who we didn't even know was there on vacation w/ friends!!

And alas, I too met my husband several times w/out knowing it. We lived in the same apartments when my parents divorced. Years later he showed up to buy my moms boat while I waited for concert tickets for that night in the mail! Years after that he showed up at a friends house while I was there. Not THAT weird but it does seem that there was a 'plan'. I left that night with him even though I had been dating someone for several years. That was 22 years ago.

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

A Storm — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:32:05 GMT

Those of us who have experienced it know the feeling.. Here's my 2 stories.

1.) My husband and I were traveling from TX to FL by vehicle and stopped at a rest area. In the car next to us a young couple with two cats were also stopped. I noticed because I wondered how they got in and out of the vehicle w/out the cats getting out. They were loose in the car. 10 days later on our return trip we stopped again and sure enough, there were the same cats and couple!! (I recognized the cats!) I even said 'Hi' to them and we discussed how odd....

2.) My grandmother died in a fire and it took almost a year for the insurance to get the home cleared and sold out. An auction place from a state away came and got the damaged, SMELLY (smokey) furniture. About 2 years later I went in a used junk/antique type store (which I have never done before or since) looking for cheap plantstands. That was the only place I went in that day. There was my headboard that I had all my childhood with my specific scratches, etc.. I had traded it to g'ma a few months before she died for her larger headboard since I had gotten married. * I didn't buy it but I always wish that I had since it had 'come home'.

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

Mable87 — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 23:20:24 GMT

There does seem to be a supernatural being or force active in our lives. Call it what you will, it goes beyond our five senses. I enjoy reading stories like these.

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

NLB7 — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:14:22 GMT

My dad came from a family of three kids, I came from a family of three kids, my wife came from a family of three kids, we have a family of three kids.... Eeery!!!

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

Myau — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 01:01:37 GMT

As fascinating as they seem, I don't know how well you can actually corroborate ALL these stories...

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

MaxPont — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:27:18 GMT

The psychologist Jung called this phenomena synchronicity or "'acausal" events. If you really try to grasp it the implications are mind-boggling. Either this is a nothing but us humans imagining coincidences that are only epi-phenomena, or we would have to completely overthrow our wiew of the universe as it is defined by Western science and rewrite fundamental laws of nature.

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

jeepgirl — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:52:58 GMT

I have been interested in this subject too, especially after what happened in the 24 hours after my mom's death. After she passed away early in the morning, that afternoon I ended up in a home depot, getting stuff to help my dad tidy up the house for guests. I was in the garden center and heard a mom yelling at her kid, "_____, come over here ___." (my mom had a very, very unusual name, that you never hear). That evening our dog was having labored breathing. He had just gone on a cycle of medicine for cushings, and that was one of the symptoms he could have experienced. When we took him to the emergency vet at 10pm, I never thought in my wildest dreams that over 2 hours later i would be hearing the vet say the exact symptoms that I heard the doctor saying about my mom, first they thought it was his heart and they they thought it was his lungs. He ended up passing away the next day. My vet at the time said that this is not uncommon, but it is usually within months. There were other things too that I blocked away, but it made my husband, a huge skeptic, stop and think too.

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

Marktwo — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:43:39 GMT

These seeming coincidences are orchestrated by God, He sees all, and He knows all, and He is in control of all! It took a lifetime of seeking, to figure out that He is the artist, and we are merely the colours and shades that he is putting on His masterpiece. The world is about to see His Hand shortly, in both blessings and judgements, and you will know that both are from Him.

There is a wonderfull invitation waiting for you all, at the main page of a site called prophecies.org recieve, believe, and ask!

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

Riki — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:52:31 GMT

I called my new husband's Aunt to tell her Thank you for sending a birthday gift to my 3 year old son. She lives in AZ and has a husband named Dan. I handed the phone to Marshall when I heard a man say Hello and told him to say, "Hi, Uncle Dan! It's Marshall. Thank you for the brithday present." I heard the man chuckle and they had a little conversation. The man and I then talked about how big Marshall was getting and how much he liked the birthday present, etc. Finally he said, "I'll tell Megan that you called." I was confused and then thought maybe he was talking about my brother-in-law's ex-girlfriend. He wasn't, Megan was his wife. Turns out this guys name was Dan, he lived in AZ, he had a 3 year old nephew named Marshall that just had a birthday AND his phone number was just one digit off from my husband's Aunt (the last number). I checked my redial after we hung up and I had dialed the RIGHT number, but somehow his phone rang! Weird.

re: Unbelievable -- What Are the Odds of This Happening?

emoritz — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:21:31 GMT

Cleaning out our bookcases, I gave my copy of The Diary of Anne Frank to a used book store. A few weeks later, my husband came home with the very same copy of the book. Amazing coincidence? Hardly.