CHAPTER 15
JOYFUL COINCIDENCES
May 13. When we decided to purchase the 214 Pinedale Drive house, we made a deposit March 31st and left it up to the sellers to determine a closing date. They came back with May 13. That was fine with us but I kept thinking that date was familiar. I looked up our records and discovered the closing on our first house on 8 Porter Road was May 13, 1971. And that date was selected by the sellers. And the closing was May 13, 1991. Exactly twenty years apart. I think the ANGELS made this a “divine coincidence.”
Susy. Our foreign student from Ecuador arrived in August 1983 to stay with us as our third (and oldest child) for a full year. We discovered that her phone number in Ecuador was “9206” and our phone number was “9206.” Then we found out Susy’s mother’s birthday was Nov 13 and so was Mary’s birthday Nov 13. And Susy’s father’s birthday was Feb 19 and that was also David’s birthday. Susy says the other coincidence is that Bill and her Ecuadorian father both part their hair the same.
March 1994. Mary’s brother Frank and family lived in Pakistan for 4 years. They decided to vacation in Florida for a few weeks; we were in North Carolina and figured we wouldn’t get to Florida to see them. Then Bill’s mother broke her hip in Florida and, in an emergency, we ended up flying to Tampa at the same time Frank and family were passing through Tampa. Once we realized this, we arranged to meet at the airport for a short but very special visit. The ANGELS must have played around with airline schedules to get this to happen.
Doctor of Divinity. When living in Hebron in the late 1980’s, Mary attended a few meetings with representatives from the faith community to establish a helping agency. Mike Thornton was our pastor at the time and was working on his doctorate. Mary helped envision a plan to create an interfaith organization. Mike decided to use that idea for his thesis. On June 1, 1991, Mary was hired to direct exactly such an organization (Allied Churches) in North Carolina and on June 1, 1991, Mike Thornton completed his doctoral thesis.
Andover. Within a week of moving from Connecticut to North Carolina, Mary was listening to a local NC radio station just to get an idea about the area. Suddenly there came a short news story about Andover, Connecticut, and its library’s plans to eliminate TV in the town of Andover for a week. This is such a nice surprise. The ANGELS must have been dancing around the air waves that day.
Lottery. The Ruths and Wyckoffs have always enjoyed playing games of chance and the New Jersey lottery is no exception. For many years Nanna and PopPop played 6 numbers: 1,6,13,17,19,27. These are significant because they represent the birthdays of Jim, Dot, Betty, Bill their spouses and all of their children. 1st: Jimmy; 6th Jim; 13: Mary, Dick, Dot; 17th: Bill; 19th: Mark, David; 27th: Betty, Cindi. The most recent coincidence is : Jimmy married Kelly who is a 13th. Cindi married Mike who is a 6th. Jimmy and Kelly’s son, Joshua, was born on the 6th. I suppose the ANGELS will continue to influence what happens next.
Roommate. David went to Louisburg Junior College in North Carolina upon graduating from High School in Connecticut. David’s friend and eventual roommate at Louisburg was Jesse. It turns out that Jesse’s uncle is Dr. Earl Danieley, the Elon President who first told Mary’s dad about the college.
Waltons. When we moved to Pinedale Drive, the Walton TV series was well known and we chuckled when we discovered our neighbors are Susan and John Walton. I had great fun writing to friends in Connecticut and telling them we had moved so far south that the Waltons are our neighbors!
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End
Retyped and reprinted 2008
