“I do believe fate brought us together.”

Tom and I were married three years ago.

We had met on a computer dating service, and we feel truly lucky that our paths crossed.  What we didn’t realize when we first met were how many incredible coincidences occurred before meeting one another.

Now mind you, Tom is from a small town in Indiana and I’m from Nebraska.

First of all, his sister and my best friend had roomed together in the dorm at Duke.  Tom’s uncle Manny knew my uncle Bruce while working at a GM plant in Detroit.  And although we had never met previously, nor even heard of one another, both Tom and I had worked for the same retail chain but in a different part of town.

On the night Tom and I met at a coffee shop, we also realized we:

1. Frequented the same coffee shop and had seen each other on numerous occasions but never spoke.
2. We were currently reading the same book.
3. We had the same major and the same minor as undergraduates.
4. We wrote down on a sheet of paper our favorite movie, then showed it to each other.  It was the same.
5. Our mothers have the same first name.
6. We each have one sister, one brother.
7. We visited Paris the same week in 2005.

Anyway, although it’s nothing astounding, I thought you’d be interested because I do believe fate brought us together and all these coincidences meant we were right for each other.

F. Brownstein
Lincoln, NB

“We had decided that after all these years, we’d do it.”

I was sitting in the living room reading a suspense novel when the phone rang.

Marvin, an old friend of mine whom I’ve known since college, invited me over to show me something “incredible.”  I told him I wasn’t in the mood because I had to get up early for work the next day, but he insisted.  He said, “You won’t regret it and I guarantee you’ll never forget it.”

Well, how could I refuse?

Marvin lives only a few miles away and within fifteen minutes I was ringing his doorbell.  His wife Marie answered and invited me in.  She pointed to the stairs leading to the den where Marvin spent most of his time on his computer.

He said you’re not going to believe this as he pointed to the screen.  And I admit I was quite taken aback.

Two days earlier, he and I were talking about arranging a reunion with our fraternity from our days at the University of Illinois.  We had been out of touch with almost every one of the guys since moving out West together in 1976, and we’d reminisce once in a while about what a great bunch they were.

We had decided that after all these years, we’d do it.  We’d write to the hundred or so guys who belonged to the fraternity from 1970 to 1974.

So when Marvin pointed to the screen, I was shocked.  There was an email from our old fraternity pal, Steve, who we hadn’t seen or heard from in decades.  He said that two days ago he suddenly had the idea to arrange a reunion for anyone who was in our fraternity in the early seventies.

B. Winters
Phoenix, AZ

“My heart dropped right out of my body.”

I was rushing back home.

After making a lame excuse to my boss, I had left work early because I had a premonition that I was needed, that my presence was necessary.

I didn’t know why I had acted upon it.  I’ve had pessimistic thoughts before and rarely have they reached fruition.  But today the premonition resonated in my soul.  I could feel it all the way to my toes.

And with a pregnant wife and a son who was not quite three years old, I couldn’t take the chance that I wasn’t needed.

I pulled up into the driveway and burst out of the car only to have Mindy come running up to me.  She said a terrible thing had occurred, and my heart dropped right out of my body.

To my relief (and I will forever feel guilty about it), our dog Sandy had been run over by a car only minutes before.

Fortunately, Sandy suffered mostly superficial injuries, and after a couple of days at the vets, she returned with a limp but not much more.  She was lucky.

Mindy asked why I had suddenly come screeching up to the house unannounced, and why I wasn’t at work.  I explained my premonition, and it was then she said she had a similar feeling as well.

This wasn’t a surprise as Mindy and I are soul mates and we have often had similar thoughts rushing through our heads at the same time.

D. Eckerston
Hartford, CO

“Everyone in the place feared for his life”

I would like to tell you about a paranormal experience I had recently.

Normally, I wouldn’t tell this to anyone for fear they’d think I was a bit loony, but I’ve read several of your stories, and I’d like to hear what you think.

It was a Tuesday afternoon and I was on my way to a local pub to share a beer or two with a couple of good buddies.  I received a call on my cell from my sister, Emily, who said she was thinking of me and was afraid something bad might occur.

I assured her that I was fine and explained that she always had an active imagination.  However, what she told me scared the daylights out of me.

Emily said that she had been “watching” me all day.  I asked her what she meant and she said she could see just about everything I had done for the past several hours.

When she heard me give out a little snicker, she went on to describe several things I had done.  Well, my snicker disappeared because there was no way she could have known.  I hadn’t been around anyone else, so no one could have alerted her.  And she described places and events in such detail, I was unnerved.  Absolutely, unconditionally, unnerved.

Then she said to come back home.  To not meet with my friends.  When I asked why, she just said, trust me.

Well, I did as she said because after her extraordinary tale, I wasn’t about to ignore her warning.  As I walked in the house, I received another call.  This was from Andy, one of my friends at the place I was supposed to go.

Andy said one of the patrons at the bar had pulled a gun and started waving it at everyone.  They called the police who quickly arrived on the scene and disarmed him.  But for a while everyone in the place feared for his life.

Who knows what might have happened had Emily not forewarned me.

F. Taslov
Jackson, MI

Can You Guess Who He Is?

Born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, this brilliant person graduated from Yale and studied in England.

And he had visions that led him into a career that would change the world.

Specializing in art, he had a dream that he would become famous.  He mentioned this to his teacher who scoffed at the notion that this average student would amount to anything.

But the young man was undeterred and pursued his vision.  It led him into science where he dabbled in numerous areas before having another dream envisioning that he discovered a new way for people to communicate.

He is known for the message he once sent, “What hath God wrought!”

At the turn of the century, when he was only twenty-three, he gave a speech explaining that he was “probing” into his past lives to help him achieve greatness in this one.  He believed that cumulative knowledge form “all his experiences” would help him uncover the secrets of the universe.

Born in 1791, he was Samuel Morse, the inventor of the first telegraph.

Charles Hancock Has Been There and Back

Charles Hancock is an Australian who claims to have died and visited “the other side.”

He relays the following story:  “I was riding my cycle alone on a winding road.  It was twilight and I hadn’t had much sleep the night before.

“Without realizing it, I started to doze and although I lost consciousness for only a second or two, it was enough to cause me to leave the road and crash head over heel into a nearby ditch.

“What seemed to be total blackness started to turn into a small distant light.  And my body seemed to be numb.  I felt nothing, nothing at all.  I was surprisingly calm even though I felt something bad had occurred.

“Then I felt my body being lifted – except when I looked down, my body was still on the ground.

“I moved slowly and peacefully toward the glow of the light.  And the closer I came, the lighter I felt.  It was as if I were a feather in a light wind.  Something good was happening, something very, very good.

“Then I was inside the light and I could see spirits moving by.  And I thought I saw my mother and my brother.  It confused me because my mother had passed away several years before, and my brother was still alive.

“It was silent and it was different.  So different I still cannot explain my emotions.  As I moved further inside the light, the glow seemed to surround me, then engulf me.  It was as if I were a speck of energy, floating in a quiet, marvelous universe.

“Then I seemed to be thrust backwards and suddenly I was hovering over my body again.  And I saw a man reaching down and thumping on my chest.  I wondered why he was doing that and wished he would stop.

“Then I opened my eyes and was looking up from the man who suddenly broke into a wide grin.  Right before I passed out, I heard him say, ‘Welcome back.'”