Estranged aunt; uncle's friend

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My mom and her four siblings grew up in northern Pennsylvania. My uncle married a European woman whom I saw regularly throughout my childhood and grew close to (2000–2011). They lived in Ohio, but divorced in about 2011, and sadly I didn't get to see her at family gatherings anymore, although we exchanged a few texts a year. In May 2015 after I finished my freshman year of college in North Carolina, my dad and I decided to take a trip to the Florida Keys for my first scuba diving trip. We unpacked at the hotel, spent a day exploring the area, and on the second day went to a pretty small, random scuba shop where we had booked our reservation. Who did I see there but my aunt!? This was lovely because I don't know when I would have seen her again otherwise - and we have not met in person since. I will repeat some of the above details for a second coincidence that happened a year earlier. That same uncle has a friend and 20-year business partner from Australia whose son happened to be going to the same school in North Carolina that I was about to start attending in fall 2014. (His son was also starting.) My uncle badgered me to get in touch with his friend's son so I would know one more person at school, but I ignored his suggestion, thinking it would be awkward to reach out to such a random person and unlikely that we would actually get along. I get to college, meet the 120 people in my freshman dorm as well as students in other dorms, and become close with a handful of new people. One boy from my dorm in particular I briefly became close with and started to develop a slight crush on. One month later, I learned that it was the son of my uncle's friend!! I guess based on my understanding of statistics, these two events felt wild, but I would expect something like them to happen to most people at least a couple times during their lives! Best of luck on your research - I am a researcher too :) Diane
Total votes: 195
Date submitted:Thu, 19 Aug 2021 03:22:12 +0000Coincidence ID:11617