Cambridge Coincidences Collection

When my husband was at sea our letters would cross due to distance and my letters had to go via London office. Often he would have written on the same subject as I had written. Telepathy or coincidence? Without even knowing what my daughter and I are giving each other at Christmas, we always exchange the same gift, e.g. handbag, scarf. When she was buying a kitten for me and was describing its colour over the telephone, grey and white sploges, I said "I will call it Smokie". She replied "That is they name I have thought of". As far as I can remember I have foretold three occasions that had either happened or would happen in my life. 'I did not want to marry a man with a 9-5 job. ' This thought came to me whilst standing on Dublin Station. A few months later I met my husband, a junior office in the M.N. Years later as he was returning to sea to trade on the West African coast, I foretold he would be on the Continent for Christmas.

My wife phoned me at work to say, her Father, who lived with us and who had been ill for some time was very near death and asked me if I would finish early and collect the children from Scool while she went to sit with her Dad at the hospital. I collected the kids and took them home and began making some food for them. In those days we had a cooker with a plate rack at eye level either side of the grill. Suddenly a plate in the rack broke and went crashing to the the floor. While cleaning up the mess the phone rang. It was my wife to tell me her Dad had just died.

15 years ago I had to phone a customer back with some information. He had given me his direct line phone number and when dialing I inadvertantly reversed two of the digits. The phone was answered by my brother. The customer was in Cramlington, Northumberland and my brother was in the workshop at his depot in Birley, Co Durham. My brother did not even know the phone was linked to an outside line as the workshop staff could only use it to the internal switchboard. It took a long time to convince him it was a spooky coincidence, and not a wind up.

My wonderful father was with us My father died on 10th October 2003 at the age of 90. He was the most wonderful man, truly loved by everybody who knew him. For his funeral I had chosen one of his favourite pieces of music, the Barcarole from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman. His two grand-daughters were a constant source of pride to him, but due to the ever increasing influence of the dementia which started taking hold of him ten years previously, his memory was of course not what it may have been. But he still had bright "sparks". My oldest daughter, Miriam, had completed her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award in the summer of 2003, but my father had never been aware of her success (although he had been of her bronze and silver). I went with her to St James Palace in November to receive her award from the Duke of Edinburgh. Because I wanted my father to be with us, in spirit at least, I wore my kilt (made of ancient Duncan tartan - my father's name being Duncan) and matching long scarf. I noticed that there was a brass band playing outside of the Hall where the presentations were to be made.