I’m convinced that there are no coincidences. Lately I’ve experienced enough chance occurrences to support my belief.
Only yesterday I encountered a friend on her morning walk when I went to get our newspaper. Her mother died recently, and although I’d sent a card, I hadn’t seen her. We talked for a few minutes, and tonight I’m accompanying her to a grief support group. I think the time together will benefit us both. But I can’t help thinking about the timing of our encounter. We were meant to meet at that moment.
In late February I had another experience when a special person entered my life at exactly the right time. Earlier that month my birth sister informed me she wanted no relationship with me and my birth mother refused to speak to me civilly. I was hurt, but I respected their wishes and let them go after eleven and a half years of trying to establish a relationship.
A few weeks later I received an e-mail from a woman named Ann, who lives near my birth mother. Ann’s aunt married my birth mother’s brother, Joe, and we share the same first cousins. Ann had been waiting in a doctor’s office when she discovered a book called The Women of Kenilworth. It contained a story about my birth mother and her business, Kenilworth Kab Company. The article listed her children’s names and residence cities, and when Ann saw mine she grew determined to find me. She knew of my existence since she was a teenager, when she and my birth mother saw each other at family gatherings.
With the help of her two sons, Ann found me online and then bought a copy of my memoir What Lies Within. That’s when she wrote and asked when What Took You So Long?, my memoir about finding my birth family in 2004, will be finished. Her first message said, “I read your book What Lies Within in one day. I couldn’t put it down. It was a heart-wrenching story, and I cried for you. With everything that happened to you, you were such a strong person and survived it all and became a great lady.”
I was touched by her words and happy to know that I have a new cousin who is kind, loving, and cares about me, although we have not yet met in person. We have developed a lovely friendship, which I treasure. Ann’s presence reassures me that goodness and kindness can flourish.
Two weeks ago a third occurrence reinforced my theory. The Spirit of Villarosa arrived at my door fifteen years to the day that my coauthor was kidnapped in Haiti. His kidnapping inspired him to write the book, a father-son story in which he calls on his late father, an explorer and adventure seeker who survived great peril, to help him escape his life-threatening predicament. Was the book’s debut on April 5, 2016 a coincidence? I think not.
People reach out when you need them, and I’m so glad that they have. While others may call these occurrences coincidences, I believe they were meant to be.