Twilight zone

I've got a sister-in-law with whom I share an unusual connection. I'm not sure if it is a connection but we've had a few odd coincidences that make one say "Small world!" and wonder how in the heck that happened.

She is the life partner of my husband's sister. V is probably 15 years older than me, very intelligent, and really fun to talk to. I find her interesting and insightful. They've been together for 30-plus years, just like R and I. They live in Wisconsin and we see them maybe once or twice a year.

Several years ago, they were here for a visit. It was a pretty day and we went for a little walk to our nearby park. As we left our house we stopped to visit with a neighbor who was outside gardening. In making small talk, she asked where they were from and they replied Wisconsin. My neighbor's son was engaged to a young lady who was originally from Eau Claire, and when she said so, V said they lived in Eau Claire. What a coincidence! When the neighbor said her son's fiancee's name, it turned out that V knew her. In fact, V had just become a Unitarian minister and she was going to be performing the wedding ceremony for the young couple just a few months down the road! Wait....what? We were stunned! My neighbor had of course never met the minister who would be performing the ceremony in a state several hours away and here she was, walking down the street with her partner who was the sister of the next-door-neighbors!

We ended up being invited to the wedding which was doubly special for us. We got to see our neighbor's son get married and celebrate with that family and we were able to witness the first wedding our sister-in-law performed as a minister. All because it was a nice day and we went for a walk and our neighbor was out gardening.

Last week R's sister and V were in town again for a brief visit as they passed through on their way south for warmer weather. I was watching the g-kids so I was home from work on a Monday which is unusual. They stopped by to see us in the afternoon because we were going to be out of town that night returning the little ones to their parents. I had Michael Perry's book "Truck - A Love Story" sitting on a coffee table. When V walked in and noticed the book she said, "Oh! Look what you're reading!" Thinking she had read it and liked it, I told her I was enjoying the book. She said she was mentioned in the book (wait.....what?) and again I couldn't believe it. We had heard about the book and the author while listening to "What Do You Know" with Michael Feldman on Saturday morning a few weeks back. He sounded funny so we somehow remembered to look for the book when we were in a Barnes & Noble. They didn't have it but ordered it for us (this was after we said we were looking for a book called "Truck something....and maybe it had the word love in the title too.")

So last night I finished the book. Sure enough V is mentioned in it. I had no idea when we got the book that she was in it, and it was a weird coincidence that we had just purchased the book and had it lying around when they stopped by on one of their infrequent visits. Where we were home because of visiting grandchildren.

It kind of makes you wonder how many coincidences you miss because you don't take a walk on a nice day or stay home to watch g-kids and have visitors. Hmm.