Cambridge Coincidences Collection

After 13 years of sharing my life with him, including a long term illness, my husband passed away. His passing had caused a lot of turmoil and I found myself completely left alone, grieving. After the funeral, there was literally nobody in my direct environment (neighbours, family, old study friends) who showed unselfish compassion. Everybody seemed to have a hidden agenda, whishing me as a baby sitter (study friend), a health carer (family) investment banker (family/neighbours) or worse, potential wife. I struggled everyday to set boundaries, reinvent my life and find meaning. The one thing that kept me going was a little prayer my late husband used to favor: "Mon Dieu, aidez-moi, mon avir est si petit et votre mer si grande." One day, only 1,5 month later, I hesitantly decided to join this annual rowing trip, organized by the rowing club which I joined for 2 years. The year before, I got so frozen during this trip, it had caught me the flew. However, this year, the weather was sunny and shiny. So I went. I got selected in a boat with 2 other rowers, which I didn't know, but who seemed to know eachother for a long time – from childhood.

Where to start? I've logged nine pages of 'synchronicities' so far and counting. Many seem to have a playful bent, such as passing driving the Stirling monument in Scotland as the Braveheart theme tune played on the radio.

An article came out in my news app that Gwyneth Paltrow had some sort of skiing accident, I don’t exactly remember what it was. I began reading a crime novel later that day , I distinctly remember Gwyneth Paltrow’s name mentioned in the first few lines of the book.

Back in 1970 as a 20 year-old I did the Hippy Trail, setting out from London where I lived, across Europe, Middle East to Nepal with two friends in a VW van. As we drove from Kathmandu in Nepal down the mountains back to the Indian border and were stopped by the roadside, a local bus suddenly stopped 50 yards past us and a figure jumped off and ran towards us. It was my good friend Antony Farrell from Ireland. Neither of us had any idea the other would be there, or were planning to visit India/Nepal at the same time. That he should have recognised me from the back of a bus as I sat by the roadside and then persuaded the bus driver to stop was pretty remarkable, but that we should both find ourselves there at that momentum was surely a once in a life time event. We have remained the best of friends ever since . CM