What Are The Chances....?

This afternoon on my way back home from doing some running around with my daughter I gave my Pop a call from the cell phone, telling him to get ready for a walk to LookOut Point when I got home in twenty minutes or so.

Once home I had to take care of a few last minutes things...and I was getting slightly annoyed at my delays...but of course I had to go with the flow, called life :) Finally, we are out the door (I take Pop on these 'walks' in his transport chair because he has Parkinson's Disease).

The waves were really peaking at The Wedge over at the west jetty and Pop and I were enjoying watching the 10 foot swells breaking on shore. All was quiet for a while..and then a gentlemen approached and jokingly asked.."Can I share the bench with you?"...being my usual self I had to ponder it, be wishywashy..let him beg...then say.."Oh okay, I guess"...lucky for me this guy got my humor immediately and we hit it off. A moment later his wife comes to sit next to me...as if we have known one another all our lives we begin to chat about the day, the surf...the usual beach-talk. I am thinking to myself...these are really nice people, so I move Pop in closer to the bench so he can join in the conversation better.

You know how these kind of chats go..."where you from originally?", "how long have you lived here at the beach", "oh! You're Italian too?!", she mentions losing her Dad a few years ago, I tell her about Mom...on and on as we get to know these wonderful friendly people...

Then we started talking about more specific neighborhoods and really narrowing things down. My Pop then mentions how he used to have to drive the freeways to Burbank each day to work. The woman, who we now know as Nancy says..."My Dad worked in Burbank too"..okay, not that unusual....then after a pause she says...."he worked for an aircraft company called Weber"..only before she got "Weber" completely out I could not catch my breath! Dad pipes in.."Well I retired from Weber Aircraft after 37 years there!"..and Nancy's eyes widen and says.."so did MY DAD!, sir..WHAT is your name?" and when Dad said his name....she literally LEAPT off of the bench we were sitting on, grabbed him in a huge bear hug and said.."George, I am Marty's daughter!"...then her and I looked at one another...crying..and she ran around Dad and grabbed me in a bear hug as I was sobbing saying.."oh my God, your Dad was like family to us!!!". Pop and Marty were friends and co-workers since....get this...1945!!!!!! I grew up as a kid thinking Marty was an Uncle! Yet, I had never met his daughter!!! We were kids, always busy doing other things when our parents would get together!!!!

Now, our town is a small 'village' beach town..but still, the population is about 13,400. And Nancy and her husband Hoyt go to LookOut Point a lot..but always in the morning..NEVER, EVER, EVER in the afternoon..and there were plenty of free benches to sit at...but Hoyt chose our bench.

When we were all getting ready to go back home Nancy gave Pop another hug and said..."George, you are like my second Dad"...the smile on my Dad's face was unbelievable.

And here is the kicker....they live around the corner from us. No kidding.

What are the chances........?