Old friend AND birthday coincidence

In the early 1970s, I did a 3-year spell in the RAMC. The first 18 months, I was posted with 24th Field Ambulance in Catterick, where I struck up a friendship with Geoff. I was then posted to Tidworth Military Hospital and we didn't keep in touch. Geoff had joined earlier than I so he had left the army a year or so before my term was up. I came out in early '74 when My wife fell pregnant. We did not yet have our own place and were living with my wife's mother. My son was born later that year.<br /> It was a slightly difficult birth so my wife was kept in. I was visiting the day after the birth and ran into Geoff, who was outside having a smoke. He had decided on a whim to look me up and traced me to my last know address, which was my parental home. My mother had told him that Anne (my wife) was in hospital having just had a baby so he came to visit. He cut the visit fairly short because of this but left us his phone number. However, we didn't keep in touch.<br /> A year or so later, I found the number he'd given us and decided to give him a call. However, the number was no longer active. We thought no more about it.<br /> In late 1976, my wife fell pregnant again and daughter was born in August 1977. By this time, we had got our own home. When she was sure she was due, I phone for a taxi to take us to the hospital. When we heard a car pull up outside, we went out, complete with overnight case, to meet it... It was Geoff. He was passing near Gloucestershire and decided on another whim to call in to see us. He found out we had moved, managed to find out our address and arrived about two seconds before the taxi to take us into the hospital. This time, he stayed a couple of days and was a great help. We joked about the coincidence and, when he left, we again promised to keep in touch and, again, we didn't.<br /> We had our third child, another daughter, in 1980. We had gone into the hospital and even joked about whether Geoff would turn up again. Anne had a long labour and I stayed with her throughout the night. Our second daughter was born around midday. I phoned my mother to tell her it's a girl and she said "You'll never guess who's here".<br /> After that, there were a number of surprise visits from Geoff that didn't actually herald another birth but we were never really the kind to keep in regular contact. Years would pass by and he would suddenly pay an unexpected visit. One of these unexpected visits coincided with the birth of our first grandchild (he hadn't even know my daughter was pregnant)... and the second grandchild (again, he hadn't know she was pregnant again). Healso turned up two days after she had he third child although, on this occasion, he had known she was pregnant but didn't know when she was due. So he decided to call in on the off-chance because he didn't want to break with what had become a tradition. </p> <p>It's a story that will continue to go down the generations in our family. How much of that is pure chance (if there is such a thing) and how much of that is down to unconscious connections we make with each other? We'll probably never know.