Or in my case just one. It never ceases to amaze me how very small this big, big world can be.
Last year I was at a family friend’s wedding and was surprised to see a guy who used to be in my class at primary school celebrating too. Turns out his other half was friends with the bride. As we chatted and caught up on the last couple of decades we remarked what a small world it was. This isn’t where the story ends.
A couple of weeks ago we finalised the sale of my Gran’s house. The 1930’s semi had been in my family since being a brand spanking new-build and understandably over the many years of ownership countless momentous occasions have taken place there. The home holds a special place in all our hearts and so when it came to the sale we opted not to get involved in viewings and left all this to the estate agents. When days later my Mum and Uncles accepted an offer, all we knew about the buyers was their surname. As painful as it was to sell the house, the whole process was fairly swift and within less than three months the sale completed.
I can’t say I’m a big Facebook user but last week I took to the pages to post a few photos of my family at the house over the years with a farewell caption. Within minutes I saw a comment from the primary school friend mentioning he lived in same area. Turns out some of his friends has just purchased in the same street too. A couple of comments later it materialised his friends had actually just bought the house! In fact the same couple had been celebrating at the wedding last year too. It is actually a flipping tiny world we live in. I can’t explain how happy my mum and sister were to find out the house had gone to such a lovely couple.
I’m often surprised to see the mutual friends we share via ‘Faceache’ or the connections I share with other work colleagues through LinkedIn. It is funny the direction life can take us and the people we get introduced to along the way. Within this post it would be impossible not to mention how Charlotte and I met. After being an avid RMW reader and even having my big day feature on the site, I still checked in regularly to keep up with the virtual wedding gossip. At this point I’d never met any of the team and was just a regular reader. I remember seeing an update on the RMW FB page congratulating Charlotte’s friends Lisa and Will on their engagement. What a coincidence I thought. My friend Lisa from school has recently moved to Brum and has just got engaged to her new boyfriend Will. How funny for two Lisa and Will’s to be getting married from Birmingham. (Well not that funny, Birmingham is after all quite a large place). Well it turned out there was just one Lisa and Will. My friend Lisa was in fact marrying The O’Shea’s friend Will. A couple of months later Lisa arranged for us all to meet and a year later I bagged myself a new job.
So folks what’s your crazy connection? Have you shared any mutual friends which have resulted in you uttering ‘small world’? Do you have any showbiz connections which mean you’re only six steps away from meeting someone unbelievably famous?
Love this! We had a strange similar story once on a family holiday in Barbados. My parents got chatting to a lovely couple and once chatting they realised we were from the same area, As the conversation progressed, it turned out that they lived in the same road, then same house my Dad used to live in and were in fact the same couple that my Dad had sold my grandparents house to when they had died. spooky!!
Very spooky Lauren. Love you were in Barbados when you met them 😉
I love this post, it makes the world seem like less of a big scary place when you find these coincidental connections, I too find it fascinating when someone crops up on my ‘mutual friends. And you think how the hell do they know each other?
Exactly Hannah. It happens a lot doesn’t it but still rare enough to make it a novelty!
Oh my gosh, this post is so true of me! I always meet people I know from somewhere or who knows someone I know. Social media has made this even more evident. Only yesterday I saw an Instagram pic from one of my friends and recognised one of the girls as someone I went to primary school with and another instgram pic from someone who had been on a hen do with the finance of a boy I used to babysit (made me feel rather old!!). I don’t think I can even remember half of the coincidences to be honest. I do have quite a few (very tedious!) celeb links. My stepnan’s niece is Trudy Styler and married to Sting – not that I have ever met him. My Dad used to be in a band with Robert Plant and was friends with Ozzy plus copious other random links so I like to think I could have known them. Although I think American’s have the best concept of a small world. I remember visiting relatives and being asked by their friends ‘Oh do you know John, he lives in London’. Hmmmm. No! xx
Oh Lottie, I forget about all your celebrity connections! ‘My stepnan’s niece is Trudy Styler’ is classic. I hope you send them a Christmas card 😉 x
This happens so often to me, it is pretty spooky. My family have also just sold my Gran’s house and with her illness (she’s still going and was sat up in bed happy as Larry the morning after we all said our goodbyes last week!) there have been lots of family stories shared. My Gran was adopted at a young age and I only found out last week she has a sister and that the sister’s son moved into the house opposite my uncle a few years ago!
In terms of celebs my cousin’s-husband’s-uncle is none other than Richard Felix the ghosthunter. The brother of the same cousin has just married a lovely girl called Sally, her brother is married to a lady called Cassandra. And Cassandra’s dad is the writer of Only Fools and Horses! This is one of my favourite stories to tell people when I’ve had a drink!
The small world links were not always so good during my days of dating unsuitable boys – a few awkward moments were spent squirming as the object of my affection introduced me to his friend or housemate I had already snogged.
No wonder there was a Cassandra in Only Fools and Horses!
Glad to hear good news about your Gran x
I love it when this happens. I recently saw my friend from when I was an 18 year old party animal who I haven’t seen in yonks from my Midlands home town, was a mutual friend of my very conservative and religious sistee in law who is from london on facebook. How?! Turns out they’re training to be nurses together and have become friends- the friend not making the name connection as I’m now married and haven’t seen Her for so long.
My husband (from London) was recently giving career advice to ny cousin (from Yorkshire) and they got chatting and it turns out my husbands friend from the military (met in Oxfordshire) left and went to uni, joined a row team with my cousin and they became friends (in Durham). Weird!
The changing to married names always throws a spanner in the works doesn’t it? Now you share a mutual friend you have to all get together! x
My husband is a film producer so he has met lots of famous people, and was once in the same room as Madonna. He hardly ever lets me meet any celebs though which is a shame! I’m sure Madonna and I would have really got on…
I’m sure you would have Kathryn. You could have helped her up when she fell over…
Well I have just started a new job 3 weeks ago (a good 1/2hr drive from my home) and met a lovely girl there who has become a really good friend in the 3 short weeks we have known each other. We were chatting the other day about where we lived and the conversation went along the lines of “I live in xyz” “oh really?! How mad, I live in xyz too!” “Where about do you live, I live just the back of the fields” “oh my days me too!” After a bit more to-ing and fro-ing like this it turns out she actually lives right opposite my house. I can see into her kitchen from mine! We couldn’t believe it! It’s ace though, I’ve just got back from a cuppa over at her house! But yes, definitely a very small world! Xx
Love this Kayleigh. How nice (and handy) to have a new friend in the area x
I do love a small world story!
My husband and I grew up in the same small town but thought we had never met until after we both had left when I went to see his band in London when I was 28. However after we had got together and moved in together, one of his band mates found some very old videos of them playing live in our old home town. When we were watching the videos, someone walks right across the video and comes back a few minutes later clutching some drinks – that someone was me at about 18 years old!
Also his parents used to live next door to an exes grandparents!
I can’t believe you were captured on video Sophie. That’s brilliant!
Sophie, your story has just reminded me about me and my hubby! When I first met him I quickly discovered that I had lived in the same village as his cousins so went to school with them and that apparently we must have known each other at the tender age of 5 as we all went to Sunday school together. Turns out Edd and I both only went as you got an amazing toffee sweet at the end!! Terrible children! x
No wonder you ended up baking cakes Lottie! x
I love these links! I’m always convinced there is a reason for them. My fave one is this; In Y8 we were all handed out a couple of ‘pen pals’ which were just names and addresses of other students in different countries so that we could practice language skills. I had a french one and a spanish one. My Spanish boy was called Diego but I didn’t write to him as I was doing French and German at the time but just kept it in my desk. In Y11, as I was struggling with my Spanish GCSE I came across it and wrote, not even sure if he would remember anything about the pen pal exchange thing at all, or if he even still lived at that address. I happened to mention we were holidaying in Spain, a little spanish town called Nerja. A month or so later I got a letter back. He couldn’t believe I was going to this place as his family owned a holiday home there by the beach and they would be spending the summer 2 minutes away from where my family were staying. We met up and played volleyball! We didn’t get on all that well – basically I was really cross that his English was way better than my Spanish so was too embarrassed to write in my rubbish spanish again after that. So that was the end of that… Until I arrived at my halls of residence at uni in an annex of 14 girls and 14 boys… Diego was the boy holding the door open for me as I arrived – and was in the room below! I’d love to say we got married… it was so weird our paths would cross like that 3 random times. We’re still friends now but the boy I married was from a different corridor!
My fave celeb links are that my friend was in Tomb Raider 2 on little speedy jet things with Angelina Jolie (he gets killed in the first 10 mins) but his wife (who I set up my charity with) got to hang out with her little girl in Maddox’s mega play room! Also I went to school with Tom Ellis (Gary in Miranda) I use that fact often when I’m doing girls courses at work – they all fancy him so it gives me good kudos. My actual star struck moment was when he was starting acting after we left school and brought along Billy Kennedy from Neighbours into our little local pub and introduced me. I was nearly sick with excitement and really embarrassed myself. I think I’m also related to Freddy Truman??! Someone to do with important cricket…?!
But ahh Lauren thats lovely to know who will be in that special house. That must be such peace of mind. Loving reading all these links and stories!
Oh Amanda, I thought you were going to say you married him! So funny you needed up at Uni together.
Billy Kennedy from Neighbours – he was always easy on the eye wasn’t he?!
A few ‘small world’ meetings, the first was when I was about 15 I flew home from spending the summer in Israel and spent the whole plane journey making eyes at a boy on the aisle next to me. Never having the courage to speak to one another. That Christmas we went to Israel again, which we never usually did. My sister and I were seperated on the return flight and asked a very kind old man to switch with me. But it seems I gave him the wrong seat number. It appears he was sat in the seat of my summer plane crush. I was mortified!
The second was at my old workplace, a new girl started and a few months later she overheard me discussing a shopping trip with my sister, she said that name seems familiar, is her Mum calld Alison, yes I said, she’s my mum too and have you got an auntie called Liz, yes, why? It turns out I knew her when I was little and her Mum and my Aunt went to college together!
A celebrity connection is that my Grandpa’s cousin was the first Bond girl and the only one to star in 2 James Bond movies!!
Oh Emily I read ‘crush’ as ‘crash’ first. I thought he’d been killed off! I wonder what he’s doing now?
It is *such* a small world!
The craziest ‘small world’ moment for me was this:- I work in a teaching hospital so I was working with a student recently – Iain – lovely guy who played in an Easy Listening band (sounds rubbish, is actually brilliant…The Easy Orchestra, check them out!), we got on really well and one day on the bus home I mentioned I used to work in a bar on a particular street in Glasgow. Iain said “Yeah, I know the one…across from Fantoosh Fish?”, surprised he knew the shop since he doesn’t live in the area I asked how we knew about the fish shop – “Oh, I did a couple of shifts for the owner, he’s a friend.” I then asked if he knew my friend Dave who is the manager of said fish shop – “oh yea, great guy!” Turns out that this student knows my husband and his pal Dave, who I have known for ages…but also turns out that I had already heard all about the band he’s in! AND, if that’s not enough…my husband had previous worked with Iain’s sister!! It took us ages to put all the pieces together but once we did it was literally like two worlds colliding!
Glasgow is definitely getting smaller and smaller!!
It’s surprising how small a big city can be Annie. I feel that way about Sheffield.
Oooh love these stories! I don’t have one nearly as exciting, but still “small worldy” nonetheless! When I was 8 I moved with my family abroad and started at an International school where I attended for 5 years. We then moved back to the UK to a really small town in Scotland when I started high school. I was the strange tanned girl from foreign climates that everyone stared at for about a month, until my tan faded and my hair returned to a darker shade of blonde and I was considered the same as everyone else. When I went into 2nd year, a new face appeared – tanned and white haired, everyone staring and whispering, so I decided to befriend this new girl and find out where she’d come from. Turns out she had come from Singapore just like me, had gone to the same school, had the same teachers, and later when we dug out our old yearbooks – we were in some of the same group photographs together! Very strange that our social circles had not crossed over (ok, ok we were only 9) and that we didn’t even recognise each other. Both of our families had decided to move to this small Scottish village (neither of us were born nearby – she was originally from England, I was born and originally lived 300 miles away) and have lived there every since. I’d love to say we became the best of friends, but we didn’t. Grew apart and all that. But I still love the fact that we had both come from so far away and ended up at the same school again in rural Scotland!
Some nine year olds have very active social lives Maddy!
Great story and how spooky to have picked the same village. x