Small World Stories

Small World Stories

As my husband pointed out this evening, the theme song from the Disney ride “It’s a Small World” could drive any sane person to commit atrocities. But at the heart of the thought, one must concede that despite the vastness of the earth and an estimated world population of 7.1 billion souls, the world is small and there are amazing instances every day whereby people connect or reconnect over spans of years and miles.

This evening I had my most recent small world experience. As I was walking to meet my husband for a glass or Tannat and appetizers at V2 on the walking mall in Winchester, Virginia, two vehicles parked adjacent to the Shenandoah University apartments next to the yoga studio caught my eye. One vehicle sported an Indiana license plate with a frame celebrating the sorority AOII. The next vehicle was also from Indiana with a University of Evansville Purple Aces license plate. That is my alma mater. I must have said something aloud. The door to the Aces’ vehicle was ajar. When the woman looked up, she said she and her husband were both alumna from Evansville. We started chatting and discovered her husband had graduated in 1977 and she in 1981. It turns out, her husband was the brother of one of my best friend and sorority sister from my Purple Aces days. They were in Winchester to move their daughter into housing for postgraduate studies.  I’d actually contacted her husband (who came down to chat) requesting his sister’s email a few years previously. Wow!

Before this connection, the most unusual was meeting a woman at a bridge social at the American Women’s Club in Hong Kong whose husband had been born at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Logansport, Indiana – the place of my birth, which had been torn down sometime in the 1970s. Furthermore, we discovered her nephew had gone to junior high school with my brother. And, we lived for all practical purposes directly across Old Peak Road from one another on this rocky island in Asia.

I’m a believer in the power of connections if one is open and aware. If I’d not been aware of my surroundings, I never would have noticed the license plates and the open car door that lead to this discovery. Everyday miracles!