I've often wondered about coincidences... Are they really? Someone once told me there are no accidents or coincidences. This made me reflect on past memories. One my mind keeps going back to is of my aunt. We were only 9 years apart so she insisted that I call her by her first name. She was so much fun with a witty sense of humor. She was my favorite aunt out of the 3 that I had.
When I left North Carolina with my grandmother for California she's who we stayed with. She had left the south and joined the army and was living there at the time. It really was a culture shock for me because now I was in a big city and I was just a small town country girl. My aunt took me everywhere. We went to Disneyland and I never wanted to leave, I loved it. She took me to the Anaheim baseball stadium and many Roller Derby games. She was really in to that. With her help I was able to settle in to city life. All was going well.
Then the phone call came, my aunt was dead from a brain aneurysm at the age of 28. My world crashed, she was the main adult in my life that ever took me places and showed she cared about me except for grandma. Her death left a void in my life that no one could ever fill. No one told jokes like her or could make me laugh so hard, I missed her so much!
Which brings me to coincidences. A year after her death some friends wanted to go hang out at this apartment building. I didn't know who the people there were but went along. I was stunned when we pulled in the parking lot. It was the apartment building my aunt lived in when I had left the south to stay with her! Memories came flooding back as I got out of the car and slowly started walking up the stairs. I couldn't believe we were also walking into the same apartment as well. What are the odds of that?! I don't remember a thing said or who we met that day, in my mind I was reliving some of the happiest times I ever had with my aunt. I could feel her presence there and got goosebumps.
Fast forward ten years later. I was in this city I didn't know well. My car broke down and there were no phone booths around, just a bus stop so I went and sat on the bench. No one had cell phones that I knew of in the 70's. I figured I go to my cousins house, he'd help me with the car. I must have sat there well over an hour before I realized no bus was ever going to come. I got really depressed and didn't know what to do. As I got up from the bench and turned around I realized I was at Rose Hills Memorial Park where my aunt had been buried?! I didn't recognize it when I sat at the bus stop. It has a huge brick wall around it.
I walked through the gate and up to my aunt's grave and began to cry. I told her I was so lonely without her, and that I was stranded and didn't know what to do. I apologized for not having any flowers for her. I touched all the letters on her grave and told her how much I loved her and hoped to see her again someday. Then a calmness came over me as I got up to leave. I just started walking down the road to where I didn't know. I turned a few corners without thinking about where I was going and there was a phone booth! I was so happy to have stumbled on it, what a coincidence... Or was it? I like to think my aunt showed me where the phone booth was and she was at the old apartment building we once shared. It was meant for me to go with my friends that day so I'd know she was thinking of me too. I'm convinced there are no accidents or coincidences after all.
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