A friend of mine shared a Facebook memory yesterday which enthralled me as much this time around as when it originally happened 5 years ago (nice one, David Walsh). He was in Canada in 2012 and rented a car, and ended up losing his wallet. 2 months later, friends of his rented a car and what did they find under the front seat? His wallet. What are the odds that they would hire the exact same car AND that his wallet would still be there?
Deirdre Chambers, what a coincidence!
However, my favourite coincidence story has to be between my brother Daniel and my sister Aisling. Daniel emailed me the exact story because I wanted to make sure I had the details exactly right;
"Hey P,
It’s a strange one – but true. I was a student in UCC and Aisling was studying in Mary I in Limerick. I was heading to Limerick for the weekend and I wanted to meet up with her. These were the days before mobile phones so I called Telecom Eireann directory enquiries to get the number for the student residence in Mary I where I knew she was staying. I called the number and Aisling answered – which was handy – but she was completely taken aback. What happened on her side that she was walking though the UL campus with her friends and one of the public payphones rang. As a bit of a laugh she said she’d answer. And lo it was me on the other end chatting as if I expected her to answer the phone. That’s a true story and the biggest co-incidence I have ever heard of.
We had a great night out in Limerick too if I remember correctly!"
Here are some of the listeners' best coincidence stories - can you beat these?!
- “Morning Paula how's this for a coincidence? My daughter and I share the same birthday (same day) and my ex has the same birthday with my youngest. Not only that, but my daughter and I will be 21 and 50 together and the youngest and her mother will be 18 and 50 on the same day. How’s that for coincidence?!” - Ken in the truck
- “Spent 12 months in New Zealand in 2001 Paula went to Queenstown to do a bungee jump and met up with all the group afterwards for a few drinks. Nobody knew each other but there were a few Irish there so you know the story - time for a session. One of the Irish lads is now my boss in a factory of 1200 people!” - Ray listening in Limerick
- “Paula, did you know that in World War 1, a German ship tried to run the British blockade by disguising itself as a British ship, but the first ship they came into contact with was the one they'd disguised themselves as.”
- “Hey Paula. Myself and my brother have the same birthday and his two boys have the same birthday.” – Lenny
- “Paula, my sister got a new phone number and it was one digit off from my mam's. She got a job offer, but they had her number down wrong and called my mam instead, and my mam was obviously able to get the message to my sister. Out of any 10 digits they could've gotten wrong, they got in wrong in exactly the right way to get the one person who'd be able to properly forward the message. No one I tell that story to seems to think it's as big a coincidence as I do!”
- “My sister had a baby and I went in to visit. She had a little girl, whose name I didn’t know when I went to pick up some flowers. First name Sophia middle name Rose. I gave my sister the flowers, which I had just grabbed on the way, without looking too carefully at them. On the wrapper it said Sophia. They were roses. Sophia Roses for Sophia Rose!”
- “Hi Paula, my ex wife lost her engagement ring. 4 weeks later my mother walked past my house polishing something on her cardigan - she'd found it in some builders sand down the road!” - Mike
- “Morning Paula! Years ago I worked for a while in a horse ranch in Australia and when I got the job, it was an English girl, also called Siobhan, who I was replacing as she was returning to England. I worked with her for a few days as she went through the ropes with me. Two years later, I was back home and working part-time in a bar in Kinsale, and got chatting to an English couple at the bar who were touring around Ireland. We got talking and it turns out that they were the other Siobhan's parents!! Not sure if it's coincidence or just proof of a really small world!!”
- “Hi Sweetpea, my sis and cousin are born same day a year apart and could be twins in personality. My nanny was very sick and unconscious but lived to see her last child married, and then passed away few days later - which happened to be exactly same day as her mums death 35 years later!”
- “Paula a man sat next to me in an Irish bar in JFK before an Aer Lingus flight back to Ireland. He chatted me up and bought me a beer. When we were boarding he asked where my seat was (so he could chat me up some more). Pulled out my boarding card and our seats on the flight were side by side. I married him.” - Leslee in Athgarvan
- “Paula, my birthday is the 8th January, my wife's is the 7th and my daughters is the 9th.” - Larry from Waterford
- “Morning Paula , I was once going out with a girl for three years. She had been fostered and was new to the town. About two years after we finished I started seeing another girl 30 miles away and when I went to meet the family for the first time I was introduced to her two foster sisters. It turned out that they were my ex’s natural sisters! How mad is that!”
- “Hi Paula. We went on a lads holiday 2 years ago. One of the lads had a girlfriend back home and they were breaking up when he was home. He had a typical 18 year old’s holiday romance telling the girl he was with on holiday he was single. We got home anyway and a few months later we received Snapchats from his now ex. Herself and the holiday romance. They were in the same course and best friends! Coincidence or karma?!” - Conor in Kilkenny
- “My mam passed away on the 30 8 03 which reads t same backways. Always in my heart”
- “Paula, there is a girl who lives a 2 minute walk from my family home and we would not have seen her in years. One day she bumped into my sister in Boston airport. She said I can't believe I met you because yesterday I was in Brisbane airport and met your brother!”
- “Morning Paula. 9 years ago my sister passed away on my Birthday. 7 years later, on my birthday, I met my partner and father to my 3 month old daughter. Was someone up there trying to make my birthday a happy day again?”
- “Paula when myself and Fiona met 17 years ago we pondered how we hadn't crossed paths sooner in our lives, I told her I'd fancied her for years but she didn't believe me, we chatted about earlier years and it turns out I was at her debs years earlier, she got out an old photo album and I was at the next table, right behind her and just staring at her. Coincidence or psychotic? Who knows!” - Niall in Tipp
- “How's things, in 2016 my Dad went to a fortune teller, now I didn't believe in that kinda of stuff, but she said to my dad in 2017 one of your sons will be a father and soon after he’ll find out that he will have a new job in a uniform - a dangerous job. When he told me I laughed. In March, I found out I'm going to be a father and a month later I got accepted to train to be a firefighter. Weird or what!” - Shane
- “Morning Paula. I have two mad stories for you. Many years ago I worked as a researcher for AA Roadwatch and we had a desk in the Dublin City Traffic Control Centre where we could see everything happening in Dublin. One day we saw a commotion at the bridge beside Heuston Station. Turned out a person on a scooter had got the bridge badly wrong and ended up in the Liffey. Thankfully the tide was out so they landed in the mud where we watched the fire brigade performing the rescue. 6 years later I was chatting to my housemate’s sister who I had just met. She had a sore shoulder which she had got crashing her moped into the Liffey. It gets better - later that year I met a friend’s dad for the first time and it turns out he was the first firefighter to reach that girl when she crashed!! Second one is when my late father in law lost his wedding ring back in the seventies. It couldn’t be found anywhere so they gave up on it. They sold the house they were in and moved away only to buy the same house 6 years later. On the day they moved back in their neighbour knocked on the door and showed them a wedding ring he had found in a crack in the pavement outside his house that morning. It was the very same ring! Mad!” - Rory
- “Hi Paula. Regarding coincidences, I got married in 2004. Myself and my wife spent our honeymoon driving around Europe for 2 weeks. We were in Rome by the Spanish steps and herself ducked into a souvenir shop and I went into an ice cream shop. I ordered and the guy in the queue behind me commented that it was nice to hear an Irish accent. We talked for a minute while waiting and I said I was on honeymoon. He looked at me for a sec and then said "you married Michele." I was astounded. Turned out he was a distant relative who could not make the wedding as he had the holiday booked already!”
- “Paula my daughter Pippa was born on 21/01/17 and the time was 21:01:17!”
- “My dad died in England. As we left to come back from England after the funeral, there was a hedgehog on my mum’s pathway. When we arrived back in Wexford, there was a hedgehog on our path in Wexford” - Mick Wexford
- “I'm married 21 years and my mother-in-law wanted to find her parents’ grave so we went looking. I had my father’s grave located which we went to and beside him we saw was my mother-in-laws’ parents. They were beside each other before I met my wife, freaky!”
- “Hi Paula I'm married 17 years when I met my husband at the age of 17. We realised my mom and his auntie were best friends and our grannies lived a few doors from each other. So my mom told me she would visit her friend who lived with my husband's granny every Saturday and that he would be there and we would play together in the garden every week! Who knew years later we'd meet marry and have 3 beautiful children of our own!”
- “I used to gatecrash a lot of parties with my friends when we were younger. My friend is a DJ so we used to always be out somewhere. My now-girlfriend went through pictures of her 18th and there I was and 3 years later I was there in the photos giving her her 21st kiss! We’re together 4 years now!” - Keith
- “Paula I took a picture of Grand Central Station in New York years ago...a random man walked through the picture. Got the photos developed and was showing a friend the photos months later. That random man was his uncle on a day trip to New York!” - Mike
- “Paula first stop on honeymoon last year was NYC, and on the flight I said to my wife that there was ONE lad from college I knew in NYC, but wouldn't have seen or talked to him in 8 years. The first pub we walked into was packed....my wife says the barman is throwing beer mats at me trying to get my attention...and isn’t it my old college friend! It was Paddy's Day so NYC was jammers, and that pub had only opened the day before!”
- “My car reg is my mother's date of birth. I hadn't noticed till she pointed it out to me. And my mum and sister have the same birthday. And my daughter has an unusual name - Darcy. When she was starting school there was another Darcy due to start in her class who also shared her middle name, Elizabeth - this other Darcy had a younger sister called Faye - my chosen name if my son had been a girl..!”
