This is all about what we call "coincidences" (read: the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection). It’s all about "miracles" – but not quite like Moses parting the Red Sea or Lazarus rising from the dead or manna falling from heaven. They’re small, everyday miracles that touch our lives in a real big way. Authors Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal of the bestselling
Small Miracles have come up with another bestseller,
Small Miracles II (available at National Book Store)
, a collection of real-life stories of extraordinary coincidences that are bound to warm the heart or cause a tear or two to fall. Ready with your hanky or tissue paper? Read ’em and weep (or laugh or both):
| A Purr-Fect Birthday Gift |
The only thing Stephanie wanted for her 10th birthday was a white female cat with long hair. Just thinking about it was enough to put a big smile on the face of little Stephanie, who had been born deaf. Nothing could make Stephanie’s mom Louisa happier than seeing her little girl happy. But the big problem was Louisa, divorced from Stephanie’s dad, didn’t have the means to indulge her precious daughter. And she knew for sure that an exotic cat would cost a fortune. Nevertheless, she combed the newspaper classifieds and found four "cats for sale" ads. She called one number after another but didn’t find the cat that Stephanie wanted. Frustrated and about to give up, Louise decided to talk to Stephanie and make her choose another type of cat. But she saw her daughter praying in sign language, imploring God to help her mommy find her a white female long-haired cat. A teary-eyed Louise went back to her room and said her own little prayer.
The next day, Louise resumed her cat hunt. That night, she got a call from a woman on whose answering machine she had left a message that morning. Yes, her cat was pure white, long-haired and female. But oh, no, it cost $500! Louise tried to haggle with the woman, but no way. Even more frustrated, Louise stormed the gates of heaven. She prayed: "Dear God, my little girl is so alone in her deaf world with her father gone and in a new home, I really want to be able to give her the gift she wants so badly. Please, help me find the kind of cat she’s looking for."
Before she could finish her prayers, the phone rang. It was the woman with the white cat. Having had a change of heart, she was willing to reduce the price of her cat to $300. But still, it was way above what Louise could afford.
Finally, the woman offered, "You know ... I do have another cat, a long-haired, perfectly white female cat that I can’t seem to give away."
A curious Louise asked, "Why is that?"
And the woman told her, "Well, you see, this particular cat is deaf."
Heather was gifted with a beautiful diamond ring by her fiance when they got engaged. She was surprised when one evening, her fiance was knocking at her door bearing another gift. It was a large gold cameo inlaid with emerald and cobalt stones with a second, smaller cameo dangling from it. The "baby" cameo was an exact replica of the "mother" cameo. But Heather thought the "mother-and-child" cameo pin was much too large for somebody as petite as she, and a bit flashy for a simple girl like her. Not wishing to hurt her fiance’s feelings, she gently asked if she could have the pin exchanged for something that would suit her more. To make a long story short, the jeweler removed the miniature cameo pin from the large one. So now there were two separate, identical cameo pins.
Heather kept the large cameo pin in the bank vault and wore it only to formal affairs. Through the years, she wondered who had bought the smaller pin. The answer came 21 years later when her daughter Micky got engaged. A struggling man in her early 20s, Micky’s fiance gave her a diamond engagement ring. Then one night, he came to her home bringing a small jewelry box. Heather’s eyes shone bright as diamonds when she saw what was in the box. It was the small cameo pin!
Said a bewildered Heather, "My future son-in-law had never seen me wear the mother piece, didn’t even know I owned it. How could this have happened? I’m still not sure what it meant, but for my daughter, the interpretation was clear. When she saw the pin nestled in the box, any qualms she might have had about the engagement vanished. For her, the pin’s reappearance in our lives was a sign. It augured positive things, and a sense of destiny. In a word, it sealed the deal."
Michael was driving his father to his summer cottage when he began telling his son stories of those encounters of the mysterious kind that he had had in his life. One story that he remembered vividly was the funeral of his grandfather. He recalled, "Just as the graveside ceremony was about to begin, a big, white, unusual-looking bird swooped down from the sky, alighted on the coffin, and squatted there, almost as if it had come to join in the proceedings ... Perched on the coffin, the bird didn’t move from its position once, but sat there quiet and unblinking."
It must have sat there for hours. The people couldn’t help but take notice and ask each other in whispers: Had the bird come to pay homage to the holy man? Could the bird be a reincarnation? Could be. Maybe the sage once helped a bird?
As the coffin was lowered into the ground, the bird took a quick look around the cemetery, spread its wings and flew onto a nearby tombstone. It stayed there until the ceremonies were over. Only when everybody got out of the cemetery did the bird finally fly and disappear from everybody’s sight.
Now, that’s a ridiculous story you’d say. Michael thought so, too. He told his grandpa that the latter was making it up or exaggerating. No bird (with a bird brain?) would sit on a coffin for hours without moving.
As Michael said this, a big, white, unusual-looking bird swooped down from the sky and perched itself on the hood of Michael’s car. And it didn’t budge from its position, like it was glued to the hood, all through the two-and-a-half-hour ride from New York City to upstate New York. No matter how fast Michael drove, despite the bumps and curves on the road.
| A Penny For Your Thoughts |
Finding a penny is supposed to bring good luck. Sharon found more than her share of luck when she saw a crumpled $10 bill on the floor just as she was paying for her purchases at the checkout counter of a supermarket in Rochester, New York. Her first impulse was to give it to the checkout clerk, but on second thought decided not to: "He’ll probably pocket it himself. I think I’ll keep it safe for awhile instead. I don’t need it now. Who knows, maybe I’ll get a chance to put it to good use later."
Sharon tucked the $10 bill into a "safety" compartment in her wallet and forgot about it. Two weeks later, she found herself in the same checkout line. She patiently stood behind a shabbily-dressed woman. The cashier was just as patiently waiting for the woman to pay for her purchase. As she ran arthritic fingers through her empty purse, the woman said, "Two weeks ago when I was here, I lost a $10 bill. I don’t have enough money now to pay for these few things."
Hearing the old woman’s story, Sharon shared her own: "Two weeks ago, I was here, too, madam and I found this $10 bill on the floor."
Sharon pulled out the $10 bill from the safety compartment of her wallet and handed it to its rightful owner.
Richard, a retired businessman, was deep in paperwork at home when his phone rang. It was the secretary of Dr. Brown on the line, confirming his appointment with the doctor the next morning. But Richard didn’t remember making any appointment with his doctor – or was he started to have Alzheimer’s? After a not-so-pleasant exchange of words, Richard relented and promised to keep his appointment. The next morning, he went through a grueling battery of tests at Dr. Brown’s office. The results were evaluated and Dr. Brown told Richard, "Not a moment too soon! You’re a lucky man, Mr. Fleming. You have a serious cardiac problem, and you’ll have to go in for surgery immediately. It’s fortunate that you had an appointment today. Had this problem not been detected soon, you would surely have been in serious trouble within a month or two."
Just as Richard was being handed the doctor’s verdict, a man was fuming in the reception hall. He said he was Richard Fleming. But the young nurse said that Richard Fleming was already inside Dr. Brown’s office.
Will the real Richard Fleming please stand up? It turned out that there were two Richard Flemings – one lived in Manhattan and the other in Brooklyn. The secretary called up the wrong Richard Fleming. Actually, it was the right Mr. Fleming, as this Fleming needed this coincidence to happen in the nick of time to save his life.
Rosemary was eight months pregnant when her baby started showing signs of heart distress. In the next 24 hours, a host of doctors and nurses kept vigil over Rosemary’s baby. The doctors decided to induce labor and Rosemary gave birth to a baby boy. Knowing that the baby wouldn’t survive, the doctors called in a priest so the child could be baptized. Meanwhile, Rosemary had drifted to dreamland in her sleep and had a vision of her late Uncle Patrick who assured her that her baby would be fine. She woke up but was terrified to see a priest at her bedside. The good priest told her, "My dear, hold on to hope because the situation has been so precarious, we baptized the baby. We named him Patrick."
Before she could tell the priest about her dream, the doctors entered her room and told her, "Your son will be just fine."
| Her Cupboard Runneth Over |
Her marriage had fallen apart and now, with five kids to support singlehandedly, this newly-divorced 40-year-old housewife was falling apart. The next month’s rent was due the next day and she was $240 short. The refrigerator and cupboard were all but empty. She didn’t know where their next meal was coming from. But just then came a knock on her door. Outside, there stood her aunt and uncle bearing bags of groceries. They lived in another part of town and she hadn’t seen them in months. It just so happened that they were in the neighborhood and thought she could use "some extra stuff."
As she was unpacking the groceries, she noticed a white envelope discreetly tucked into one of the bags. It had her name on it. When she opened it, she found 12 crisp $20 bills. Certainly, $240 is a strange amount of money to give as a gift. But it was exactly the amount she needed to pay for her rent.
| Have Your Birthday Cake And Eat It, Too |
Kelly had devoutly stood by her husband Chris all through their 40-year marriage. Chris was a workaholic and had no life outside his work. Kelly could only dream of going away on a vacation with her husband and getting a life. But all her dreams simply vanished into thin air when Chris, who had promised early retirement, told her that he was taking on another job in another state. Like the dutiful wife that she was, Kelly moved to Houston with Chris even if the only person she knew there was Chris’ third cousin Katherine. The days passed and then came Chris’ birthday. Kelly decided to surprise him with homemade birthday cake – his favorite Hawaiian Delight cake. Chris was so delighted that he promised Kelly that when her turn came, she would also have not one but two birthday cakes. But that night, Chris had severe chest pains and died. The days stretched into months, the months into years until it was Kelly’s 60th birthday. Alone and lonely, she was sitting at her kitchen table when the doorbell rang. It was Chris’ cousin Katherine at the door carrying a large box. Katherine had baked a birthday cake for Kelly. Minutes later, the doorbell rang again. It was the next-door neighbor Mrs. Thomas who had come to welcome Kelly to her new neighborhood with – you guessed it right – a cake! Mrs. Thomas said, "Just today, I was in the bakery and was drawn to a cake in the showcase that said ‘Happy Birthday!’ Well, I know this sounds downright fanciful, but it seemed to be beckoning to me. And beyond any reason or logic, an inner voice deep inside of me said, ‘Bring this cake to Mrs. O’Brien.’ Well, I’ve lived long enough to know to obey my inner voice, so I hope you won’t mind a foolish old woman’s actions ... Now, it isn’t by any chance your birthday today, is it?"
Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it, too?