These are not recent stories, but I enjoyed them so much and have always wanted to do a blog post on this topic, so here we go . . .
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| The story begins with an engaged couple looking at the fiancée's childhood family photos of a trip to the Magic Kingdom in 1980. The girl to the right of Mr. Smee is the future wife with her brothers. However, upon closer examination, the future husband sees his own father pushing a stroller in the background and realizes that he is the boy in the stroller! His parents confirmed that yes, they were visiting from Montreal on that date! |
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| This is a picture of the couple in 2010 when they released the story. (**Both photos courtesy of Disney Parks**) |
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| In a similar story, after getting engaged, this couple was looking at childhood photos and found this picture of the future wife with a group of kids at a beach in Montenegro. Her future husband recognized the yellow raft behind the kids as one he used to own and then realized that the boy floating on it was him! At the time, she lived in London and he lived in Kosovo. (**Photos courtesy of Yahoo!life**) There are a few other stories like this on the internet which I think is just amazing! My husband and I grew up in different counties, but only 20 miles apart, so it's not unimaginable that we could have been in the near vicinity of each other some time in the distant past. And we actually realized that we had been. His school district was in the same sports league as mine and he played basketball. I went to every home basketball game at my high school. He was a year older than me, so subtracting my senior year from the equation, we've deduced that I unknowingly watched my future husband play basketball three times in my high school gymnasium. Unfortunately, there is no photographic proof! Do you have any interesting stories about being in the same place at the same time with someone you later became friends with (or more)? |
That is so cool but it has not happened to me. I did however pick out my oldest son's name when I was 15 and met my ex-husband who had an uncle and a brother with both names. So that was a little weird. - Have you seen that movie Serendipity? With John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale? Those stories remind me of that movie which I love, btw.
ReplyDeleteWhat the heck? Did you ever go to bed last night? Lol, this is an early comment for someone on the west coast! That’s cool about the name, but only if he liked his brother and uncle! I think I did see that movie and enjoyed it for the same reason. Stay cool!
DeleteI'm usually up by 3am every morning. :)
DeleteYou’re crazy, but I love you!
DeleteA-MAZING stories! Isn't it something how when you look back (particularly through photos, such as the ones you shared here) at how things manifest, you can SEE everything that led up to the manifestation? It makes you realize just how small the world really is. Kind of like that expression "Six Degrees of Separation."
ReplyDeleteAnd I didn't know that about you and your husband?! VERY cool!
I've not had anything like that happen to me, however, I have met out-of-town Florida customers here in Philadelphia who when they spotted me in the store, came up to me and said that I had waited on them in a store I had worked in Florida. Isn't that something?
FUN post, my friend! X
These stories are amazing. And I’ve always loved the six degrees thing. I can’t tell you how many times that’s happened to me. In fact, I have a current friend (Lois) that worked for the same dept store chain that I did and when we compared notes, our time overlapped. The funny thing is, I remember the manager of my store’s children’s section talking about the manager of the children’s section at another store and always referring to her as ‘Lois at Summit.’ Isn’t that crazy??? Twenty years later, we meet!
DeleteAnd I love that your former customers remembered you!!! Must have been the superb customer service!!! XO
I don't have a story about being in the same place with a person, but I do have a story of visiting a big city and getting lost while driving there. We made a wrong turn and ended up in the countryside. We drove by a soon-to-be built subdivision and laughed about who'd want to live out here? Fast forward 10 years, we're moving to the big city and where does our realtor take us? To the now thriving subdivision we saw starting a decade ago. Talk about feeling like fate had us in tow.
ReplyDeleteThat’s strange! Did you end up living in that subdivision? “Who’d want to live out here?’ Lol, sounds like something I say every time we drive through a rural area.
DeleteI don't have any stories quite like those, but I do have a couple of decent ones. There was a woman I was friends with when I was in college; we graduated and went our separate ways. I got my first 'real' job, and was assigned an office (cubicle) right next to her dad. . .
ReplyDeleteWhen Jenn and I were engaged, we polled our parents for who should be invited to the wedding. One of the names on my parents' list was one of my dad's cousins. When we compiled both lists together for a review, Jenn's mom pointed at this cousin and said, "She's a fine person and all, but I wouldn't think close enough to invite to the wedding." Turns out my dad's cousin went to the same church as Jenn's parents, and they'd known each other for years. . .
Those are good stories, Craig! When my daughter and SIL made their wedding list, a close friend of his parents from their church turned out to be a preschool teacher of two of my kids. And one of my aunts turned out to be a card club friend with one of his relatives, too. Small world!
DeleteI've heard that first one before. I think that the likelihood of something like that happening is so small but when it does it's so cool.
ReplyDeleteThe shocking part is that there’s a photo of it! So random and timing had to be just right.
DeleteThis is such a great post and such cool stories! It's just crazy isn't it? Same with what happened with you and your husband. With me and my hubby, in our teens and early 20s we had lots of mutual friends, hung out at the same places, attended so many of the same events but somehow we never met until years later when we moved into the same apartment building on the same day, his apartment was directly above mine. We've been together since that day. :)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, that’s pretty amazing, too! It must have been really funny when you realized all of that about each other. And who knows if you would have met if you hadn’t noticed each other on your moving day! Crazy!
DeleteWe have some unusual family stories in my family, Bijoux.
ReplyDeleteMy mother and father knew each other from childhood. My paternal grandparents ran a boarding house. (Years later it was my childhood home without any boarders.) My maternal grandfather and his 2 daughter, my mother and her sister boarded there briefly after my 1st maternal grandmother died and before he remarried and also relocated to a house less than 2 miles away. Also, my father and mother each had one sister who each married one of 2 brothers.
I have a few friends whose parents married siblings of each other. It must make for some fun family gatherings.
DeleteSadly, all the relatives mentioned in my comment have passed. But, it always intrigued me that my cousins were more inter-related than other families.
DeleteThat is so great and so amazing! Also, props for the perfect title for this post. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Betsy.
DeleteHow cool with you and your hubby and these other stories you featured! I'm drawing a blank if I was ever in such a situation so I'm thinking probably not. Thanks for sharing a really cute uplifting post!
ReplyDeletebetty
It’s probably an uncommon occurrence. Glad you enjoyed!
DeleteGood post! The Mister and I realized that we were at the same concert as children. I had no idea that this was a thing. Glad to read that other couples had such experiences too.
ReplyDeleteWell, that’s really cool! It’s fun to think about.
DeleteIncredible coincidences! My sister just this past weekend told me a story involving her daughter's engagement ring (her daughter was married in 2004). Actually two stories ... one, when she was a teenager, Rebecca (my niece) saw a picture of an engagement ring in a magazine. She tore it out, proclaiming it to be exactly the ring she wanted when she got married. Fast forward about eight years, and she was in a foreign country working briefly as a sort of missionary, when she met Rex, a Chinese Filipino who was serving in the same capacity, and they fell in love. Long story short, eventually Rex wanted to propose but had no way of getting his hands on an engagement ring. He deputized his mother and sister in the States to pick out a ring for Rebecca. He told them the kind of ring he wanted. You guessed it! They chose the very ring that Rebecca had seen in the magazine, and she still had the magazine page to prove to Rex, later, that his mom and sis had picked the very ring she had wanted since she was a teenager!
ReplyDeleteBut wait! There's more! Many years later -- in fact somewhat recently -- my sister met a doctor when she was at the hospital visiting someone. I don't know all of the details but he recognized her last name (it's somewhat unusual) and asked a few questions, and in the course of their chat it turned out that, way back when Rex's mom and sister had bought Rebecca's ring, this doctor, a family friend, had been tasked with hand-carrying the ring to the foreign country where Rex and Rebecca were both serving as short-term missionaries. So that they could get engaged. Which they did. True story. Stories. xoxo
Wow! Lots of interesting drama around that ring! It makes for a wonderful love story for them. Thanks so much for sharing.
DeleteRemarkable stories. I haven't experienced anything like that, but I still thinks it's amazing that by a sheer fluke I got in touch with someone I hadn't seen for about 50 years. I was looking at a Facebook post from the US and this person happened to have commented on it. I messaged her and we've been in close touch ever since.
ReplyDeleteThat’s great to hear. For all the evils of social media, being able to get in touch with people from our past is a real benefit.
DeleteGreat post! These are amazing stories...I got chills just reading them. My now-MIL used to live in the same town as I did years before I ever met her and she worked at the Target I shopped at regularly, so we're both fairly certain we met at some point in the past.
ReplyDeleteHey Mark! That's actually pretty cool, too. Hope you have a great 4th of July.
DeleteInteresting stories! I don't think I have anything quite like that to share, but my in-laws were named King and Queen of their prom (each had other dates though), but he hadn't lived in the area for very long so they didn't know each too well. At some point after the prom they became a couple and have now been together over 65 years.
ReplyDeleteAwww, that’s a sweet story. I’m guessing they had a photo taken together at the prom. That’s a neat thing to tell the grandkids.
DeleteIt's like their love was meant to be! I don't have a similar story like that, but I did visit a psychic once that told me I'd marry a man that's currently in a country that starts with a C. I always thought Canada, but I married a Cuban. A long shot? Yea, but that's as romantic as it gets for me. LOL
ReplyDeleteThat’s creepy to me! You couldn’t pay me to go to a psychic. Was he really in Cuba at that time? That creeps me out. Lol!
DeleteYes!
DeleteI don't have any interesting stories of that kind (others, though--lol!). I love hearing about things like this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog. I really do appreciate it with much gratitude. Thanks. :)
Thanks for stopping by, Rita. Take care.
DeleteThose are pretty cool stories! It sure is a small world!
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed!
DeleteIsn't that crazy how that works out? I lived 2 towns over from my husband, so we didn't go to the same school. However, we've both talked about how we'd spend every weekend at the same roller rink, or summers at the same tiny little beach. And my mom actually dated hubby's next door neighbor and we'd often visit that boyfriend's house. It's funny to think how many times we may have bumped into each other throughout our childhoods and never realize we'd be married down the road.
ReplyDeleteOk, that’s crazy! You were at the house next door to your future husband’s?!? AND skated at same rink and went to the same beach? I’d think you would recognize him as a kid! That’s a lot of stranger contact. Pretty cool!
DeleteI'm not sure that I believe in a roadmap to our lives already laid out for us, but sometimes stories like these make me think there's something more than coincidence at play. The seeing your younger self in a (at then) stranger's photos down the line though is really nuts. I'd probably freak out if that happened to me.
DeleteI think I’d be freaked out by that, too. I have had two people on fb (men, so take that into consideration) who are friends of friends and they both swear to have known me back in high school days (but didn’t go to my high school). I think I have a great memory, but have no recollection of either of them. They are either lying or I’m losing it! I refused to accept their friend requests!
DeleteDefinitely delete them if you don't remember them! I get all kinds of weird friend requests from men on Facebook and Instagram. Also on Words with Friends! I figure they are just foreign scammers looking for an easy victim to take advantage of.
DeleteThe fb people are legit in that they really are friends IRL with people I know. I just don’t believe we’ve ever met. Yeah, Instagram is nuts with the scammers.
DeleteWow. I love these kind of stories. It is just crazy how connected we actually are to some people even though we don't know it. I don't have a cool story like this. I think the best I have is connected with folks because we went to the same university and we can bond because we got drunk at a local bar. Exciting, huh?
ReplyDeleteLol, I actually enjoy meeting people who share common memories of college bars, restaurants, etc. that no longer exist. Ties that bind!
DeleteI love stories like these. In my own case, I had a crush on my English teacher when I was sophomore.
ReplyDeleteSix years later I started my first job at a small publishing house and I found that one of the copy editors was my English teacher. I was adult by then, so I asked her out and we actually dated for a while.
Wow! Was she not much older than you? That is pretty cool, Rob!
DeleteShe was only about six years older than I was.
DeleteThat's really cool about seeing your husband like that, even if you don't have photographic proof. Nick and I were around a lot of the same places around the same time as kids, but don't necessarily think we were ever in exactly the same place at the same time. His grandmother used to take him to SC to shop for school clothes at the same mall we always shopped at. My family used to go see waterfalls near where we live now (Nick grew up here) and on one particularly disastrous outing (because my dad would rather die than ask for directions) we ended up stopping at the Burger King that's about two minutes from where Nick and I live now. So close-ish, but no cool stores or pictures.
ReplyDeleteThose are actually great stories, Danielle. Who knows? You may have been at the mall on the same day.
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