Cambridge Coincidences Collection

Many years ago I had a fairly new car stolen from outside my house. It was not found, I received the insurance for it, bought a new car, and forgot all about the event. Several years after that, the police called me to try to identify a car, same make, age and colour as the stolen one, which they had picked up as part of their investigation into a car theft and sales racket. I went along, was able to identify the car by a cigarette burn on the back seat, and another distinguishing mark. I felt very sorry for the poor young man who had bought the car in all good faith, obviously had young children, and was looking fairly fed up about it all. About a year after that, my husband told me that a new chap had started work at his company. They were talking about cars one day, and it turns out that this new member of staff was the same man who had bought my stolen car, and whom I had met at the police garage! I live in Manchester, and my husband worked about 10 or 12 miles from where we lived, so this struck me as quite an amazing co-incidence, and still does. (I believe the young man was allowed to keep the car by the insurance company)

Our eldest son and his family who live in Oakville near Toronto, Canada were on their way to the Coliseum in Rome where their young son captured a small lizard which was running along a wall. The family passing found this most intriguing and asked permission to take a photograph which they did. Our daughter-in-law was asked if she would like the photograph emailed to her (our son, her husband had just nipped into yet another museum at that moment in time whilst his family were waiting outside) to which my daughter-in-law replied. "Yes please, I will give you my husband’s email address as it will be easier for you to remember" (neither party had a pen). When she proceeded to give his email address with the surname (Fryer), the lady whose husband had taken the photograph said. “We know a family called Fryer”. It transpired they were friends of our youngest son and his family who live in Seattle – their son being a close friend of our grandson who lived in Seattle. Now had our grandson from Canada not captured the lizard, both families would have passed not knowing this connection.

Once on holiday in Dinard or Dinan in France my husband and I climbed the bell tower. We were alone until, first one man with whom my husband had served in the RAF joined us and then a second man from his squadron (not sure if this is the right noun) appeared. They all enjoyed the reunion.

I was trying out a new pen in my classroom and was absent-mindedly writing the words 'poetry' and 'excelsior' on a piece of scrap paper. A few minutes after, I went to the staff room to do some copying. As I was at the photocopier, another member of staff turned to me and asked if I had ever heard of a poem called 'Excelsior' by Longfellow. I had to tell him that coincidentally, those were the very words I had only just been writing in my classroom. We were both struck by the strangeness of this event.