Chance

My husband is a fourth-generation antiques dealer and has built a business on the specialist transport of antiques driving across Europe in his truck and then going into packing 40’ containers to be shipped worldwide. He started his transport business whilst still in his teens. As part of his business he has also taken on household removals from time to time. For the last forty-three years I have happily travelled with Stephen on many of the long road journeys, been involved in the container packing and been part of many a removal team myself.

I was reminded this week of one of those weird coincidences when you stop and think what are the odds of that? This time I was asked, by somebody very close to me, if I knew anything about a certain house that is for sale. It stands in a town that was much closer to Steve and I than it was to the enquirer, who was interested in buying the property. As he spoke on the phone, he sent me a photo of the house in question because, I thought I knew the house quite well. The photo confirmed that it was a house that some very dear friends of ours had lived in for many years until they downsized at their retirement time.

We had been in the house many times over the years visiting our friends and even at one time been involved in an exercise video for TV; this made in their back garden. For many of our triathlon years I held a ‘start to run’ course annually. This was for beginner women of any age who fancied giving it a running a very gentle try. We met in a lovely estate park nearby and couple of times the course was reported on TV and in the local press. All my lady beginners had great fun making a short film for TV and from that we were asked to make a short series of stretching sessions also for beginners.

So yes, I did know the house in question. Then as if that were not enough serendipity for one day, with the hour of being asked about our old friends home, the friend who had been in the ladies group and the videos, and who I have been in contact with since the move, and who was a member of my poetry group until we were put on hold by Covid, sent me an email saying how much she was missing our poetry monthly meetings. She will think it all fun too when I tell her all about all this in my reply message.

Years ago, we moved one family out of a another very nice house not far from us, then shortly after that, members of our family moved into the same house and following the second change, when they moved out of that same house; we discovered that a new swimming friend who had joined our club was living in that same house.

 Three times, when we have been away in the truck, long before Sat-Navs, we have stopped to ask the way, when close to our delivery destination, only to find that we knew the person that we had stopped to ask was another English person that we knew from home who was on holiday.

My mothers maiden name was Chance, what a lovely name.

I do enjoy a good sound old coincidence don’t you.