A holiday we shall never forget!

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understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

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This is an incredible but entirely true story of unbelievable coincidence when my wife, Ann-Marie and I were on holiday in Florida back in 1989. Our fly-drive holiday to Florida had started badly when our hire car was broken into on only our third day there. We travelled on down to Key West on the Florida Keys and booked ourselves into a motel there. Whilst at the motel poolside my wife overheard a couple who sounded as if they came from the north-east of England, just like her. We introduced ourselves and spent most of the weekend with Sunderland couple Iris, Jimmy and their young daughter Karen. On the Monday they said their goodbyes as they continued their fly-drive holiday. We spent the next couple of days renewing travellers cheques we'd lost in the break-in etc and then headed north ourselves. We replaced our damaged hire car in Miami then drove up to Fort Lauderdale where we booked ourselves into a motel. We went out at night and chose one of the many beachfront restuarants for dinner. We had barely started eating when who should walk into the restuarant but Iris, Jimmy and Karen! ...and they were staying at the same motel as we we were! An unbelievable coincidence to meet again we all thought, but it didn't end there! After a few days together Iris, Jimmy and Karen said their farewells once more, as they were moving on to meet some old Florida friends who lived north of Orlando. We promised to keep in touch when we got back to the UK. We spent a few more days in Fort Lauderdale before driving up to Disneyworld to spend some time up at the theme parks. We found ourselves a motel in Kissimmee and visited the parks over the next few days. One morning we mistakenly overslept and headed out to get some late breakfast. We found ourselves a local resturant and were eating our breakfast when my wife suddenly shrieked! Who was walking through the doors of the restuarant but Irs, Jimmy and Karen again!....for a third time! When we asked what on earth had brought them to this restuarant they explained that they had been in it the year before, and that their daughter had asked they go back, in order to buy a little game that the restuarant provided to keep the kids amused. Who would have thought it possible to bump into strangers on three separate occasions, hundreds of miles apart in busy Florida - it was incredible! Had we not slept in we would have passed each other by for sure. Naturally they became firm friends when we came back home, and we visited each other very often until tragically Jimmy died suddenly a few years later. We were devastated of course. We often look back to that holiday, which started so badly but ended up being so memorable for all the right reasons. We always wondered what the probability of these three chance encounters was, perhaps we have now found someone who can tell us! Even if you can't we hope you enjoyed reading our story!
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Date submitted:Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:42:12 +0000Coincidence ID:3415