Coincidence #3

I suppose that being called Rossi & having an Italian restaurant in a small village makes it reasonably likely the people would know *us* or at least Mum and Dad if they knew the area at all, and so there have been quite a lot of this type of coincidences in my life. The 'oh you know my mum and dad' type thing. That, coupled with the fact that I travel a lot and talk to most people, so i've always taken them a bit as 'well they happen'.

This next one, however was just completely and utterly madly coincidental. It starts off as not mine but in several coincidental twists, I was coincidenced in at the last minute!

It was a weekend in the summer. Dad's birthday, in fact, and myself and my friend Scotty were up home for the weekend.

Scotty & I had spoken many time about the times when he, as a young child, had been sent on holiday to a parish not too far from Bromborough, as part of an exchange holiday between the parishes. So, given that we were there...and Dad's party arrangements were under control...we headed off in search of this parish.

I just need to point out that it was long enough time ago that we DIDN'T google it beforehand! So actually we had to drive around a bit to find the church. We did find it after asking at a local newsagents!

So, we rocked up at the presbytery, knocked on the door, and when the priest answered, we said "father, we know this is a strange request, but do you know anything about the exchange holiday with St Agnes's parish?"

"Oh" he said "they're about to arrive in an hour"

what?

to cut a very long story short, the parish exchange was still going on, some 20 years later, and the children were due to arrive WITHIN THE HOUR of us going to that parish. How was this possible?

We were invited into the parish hall to wait for the arrival of the bus with the children on it. Quite a few local families were already there, waiting for them. And of course so were the family that had taken in Scotty, all those years ago. It was a lovely reunion!

This family were hosting one of the adults accompanying the group; Scotty's mate Tucker! A childhood friend, who used to come on this trip as well and who now was part of the organising team from St Agnes'. You can imagine his surprise getting off the bus to see Scotty there waiting for him!

The host couple (I can't remember their name) had us back to their house for a cup of tea and a biscuit, whilst Scotty and Tucker went down memory lane and chatted about the good times they'd had on holiday there. It was lovely!

Inevitably the conversation moved on to other subjects, and this is where my conincidencing started. Firstly the gentleman's sister was a nun. Nothing too strange, apart from the fact that I knew her as she was an FCJ sister - and lived at my school!

Next thing that was weird was we were talking about a lucky escape the family had had where a car had crashed through their lounge wall - it had been stolen by joyriders, and they'd missed the turn outside the house and crashed stright through the fence and into their lounge. It was a lucky escape because the family had just got up and walked into the back room.

Whilst we were sympathising with them, & marvelling at their lucky escape, I had a flash of memory. I was sure this story sounded familar to me......so I asked if they knew the person whose car it was....was he an italian....did he own the local restaurant. YES, they said! Some friends of mum and dad's who live in this area, had had their car stolen, and It had been crashed into someone's house by joyriders......It was the same people. How bizarre.

During the conversation (which went on for several hours) there were so many coincidences, that Scotty and I had to stop & write it all down afterwards, and I can't actually remember all the nuances of detail which linked us all together!

Anyway, it was a mega day of them and we were blown away!