A family connection with a stranger

I moved to Scotland, several years ago, from the North East of England where I was born. I lived much of my childhood and adult life in South Tyneside. In 2013, a friend came to visit me in Edinburgh during the Festival and we walked up the Royal Mile, watching street performers and weaving our way through the Festival crowds. At one point my friend walked ahead of me and I when I spotted her, she was talking to a man who was giving out flyers for a show that evening. When I caught up with her, my friend said, ‘This lad is from South Shields!’ (our home town). He said, ‘Actually, I’m from Hebburn.’ (a neighbouring town to South Shields). He looked about the same age as me (early 50s) so I said, ‘My Mam’s family are from Hebburn; what’s your (sur)name?’. ‘Eglinton’, he said. I replied in turn, ‘When my Mam was younger, her best friend was Ellen Eglinton.’. ‘That’s my aunty’, he said. We stared at each other in disbelief. But we were both smiling broadly. My Mother had passed away 11yrs previously and I felt a sense of wonder that, here I was, in a different part of the UK, in a city filled with thousands of visitors and tourists, speaking to a stranger who had such a close connection to my Mother, through his aunt. He said he was very close to his Aunt and I think he felt the same as I did about our chance meeting. He lives in a different part of the UK and it was his first visit to Edinburgh. We quickly became friends on Facebook. He contacted me a few weeks later to say he had told his Aunt of our meeting and she remembered my Mam as ‘a very dear friend’. That meant so much to me. Ellen passed away a few months later. Her nephew and I remain friends on Facebook. I feel that even though we barely know each other and speak only occasionally on Facebook, we nonetheless share a very special bond which warms my heart because of the two women who meant so much to each us and who were such good friends to each other. A very happy coincidence.