Sibling/friend search

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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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At approximately 2pm 06-23-17, I began searching the internet for some old family friends of ours that used to live next door to us. Their family consisted of mom, dad and two daughters. My brother, who is 10 yrs older than I, was friends with the 2 daughters. Their father helped me get a job at a local store around the age of 17. I am now 40 and my brother is 50. My brother now lives about 500 miles north of me. We see each other about once or twice a year and are not super close. My brother moved out of the house between 18 to 20 yrs old. After the neighbors dad helped me get my first job, their family moved a few years later. Contact was not maintained with this family after that point. Today, while at work, I decided to look them up to see where they are in life. I Googled their names and finally found the new (married) last names of the two daughters. One of these daughters my brother was "good" friends with at the time. I first looked her up on Facebook, found her picture, and jokingly sent the pic to my brother via text to see if he might remember who that was by a modern day pic. To my surprise, he replied back IMMEDIATELY with her name. He then said that he was just looking her up on Facebook the night before. Now, clearly coincidences are real. I do not look for meanings in them as I firmly believe they are just coincidences. But as soon as this happened, I could not help but think of what the odds would be for this to happen.
Total votes: 203
Date submitted:Fri, 23 Jun 2017 21:43:44 +0000Coincidence ID:9264