Research coincidence

I've been researching my family history for about 30 years. My grandfather, Edward Carey, always told my mother when she was a child that she was a very lucky child as she was the seventh child of a seventh child. My mother certainly was her father's 7th child, but her father was the 4th child of his parents (Edward and Mary Jane (nee Picard) Carey). When he was quizzed about this he was always very vague muttering about still births and things. My mother came to the conclusion that he was just trying to make her feel special. Once I started researching the family history, she would ask me now and again if I had found anything. I hadn't. She died in 2001. About 3 years ago I was in Widnes Library helping a friend with some family history, and also looking for newspaper articles about my grandfather's family, the Careys who lived in Widnes for a while. I finished before my friend, and went to sit at a table to think about what I had found. The table was in front of a large bookcase, which must have been about 8 ft long and about 5 or 6 shelves deep, and filled with books of various kinds. For some reason, I don't know why, I stuck out my hand and pulled out a book. I looked at the title and it was transcriptions of the Monumental Inscriptions at St Mary's Churchyard in Widnes. I had never heard of the church and it had not before come up in my researches. I glanced at the Index and saw the name Carey. I looked at the transcriptions of these MIs and couldn't believe my eyes. There were the burials of two little boys. (Ref No. of tombstone: 792) "Eustace Hurn Carey who died 11.3.1865 aged 15 months" and "Also Henry Picard Carey who died ?.2.1866" remainder of inscription indecipherable. I realised immediately that these were two of my grandfathers lost older brothers. Their father was Eustace; Eustace's grandmother had been a Hurn and his wife had been a Picard. It was far too much of a coincidence for these not to be two of the missing children. I have since sent for the death certificates and proved this. The big question is, why did I take that one particular book from the shelves, when it wasn't even right by me, but an arm stretch away??? Some people I have told the story to think that it was my mother directing my arm???!!