double coincidence

As children we lived in Hertfordshire. In due course my sister, Margaret, six years older than me, went to Teacher Training College in Liverpool, where her best friend and digs-mate was Hazel, whose family lived in Cheshire. My brother, ten years older than me, worked abroad for many years, but eventually returned and moved to Elston, a village near Newark in Nottinghamshire. Imagine Margaret's surprise on hearing this: 'That's where Hazel lives!' Meanwhile, I had moved to Dorset, where I met and married my boss. Sue and Mike were close friends of his, and in time we spent many a happy Sunday afternoon with them both, our two children having a great time with their three. After we moved to Cambridge in 1988 our contact with Sue and Mike was largely restricted to the annual Christmas card, although they did come to my husband's funeral in 1999. In 2010 on a trip to Dorset I went to see them, and naturally asked about the family. Their eldest child, Gill, had married and was living near Nottingham, hoping to move soon to be even nearer to her mother-in-law, Hazel, in Elston......