Old Friend

My husband and I met Tony & Fred (Winifred) on a plane whilst migrating to Australia in 1964 (£10 pommies)- we were both very young and just married. We stayed in Australia and kept in touch, even sharing a house together at one time. On the day we heard my mother-in-law had died we heard that Tony's dad was dying of cancer so made arrangements to come back to England together, this was in 1966. We both had families and kept in touch over the years, tailing off in the years up to 1985 when I had sent them a Christmas card with a note telling them all of our news. They arranged to come to see us and when they did they told us that their 14 year old daughter had died some 4-5 years previously of leukemia and they had received my card on what would have been her birthday and it had cheered them up on what was a very sad day. After her daughters death Fred had breast cancer and had a masectamy and then contracted MS. After this time we kept in touch spasmodically but did not see them. They lived in Haverhill, Cambridgeshire some 30 miles from where we lived in Sawtry. In 2005 my sister had a heart attack, her husband had had a hip replacement and could not take her to Papworth where she had an appointment to have a nuclear x-ray so I took a day off of work to take her. She went into x-ray and I sat in the waiting room, I looked up to see Tony and Fred walking into the x-ray department, we hugged and she told me she was suffering from terminal cancer, we chatted and they went on to their appointment. My husband and I went to see them the following week and were able to spend some quality time with them, she died later that year. Coincidence 1. We both heard of our parents death/illness on the same day Coincidence 2. They received my birthday card on their late daughter's birthday Coincidence 3. My sister's husband had a hip replacement at the same time that my sister had a heart attack and could not take her to the hospital so I took her instead. Coincidence 2. We were in Papworth for a 10 minute slot and Tony and Fred happened to be in the same place at the same time although we live 30 miles apart, and we found out about her illness. I firmly believe that this was a very strong coincidence. We had known them for 40 odd years and our paths crossed for the final time at Papworth. This was a remarkable lady who had come through much adversity and was extremely sanguine about her illness and was absolutely positive that when she died she would see her daughter again.