talkmagic.co.uk

What is the most one in a million thing that has ever happened to you?

Mine would be my dad getting sick with a throat thing that no surgeon knew how to operate on. They pulled a surgeon out of retirement to do it. While he was in the hospital, we ended up getting hit by four consecutive hurricanes.

That's my one in a million thing feel free to share yours. (I'm just nosy and curious. )

I was concieved! Pretty lucky that.

Did you know that statistically speaking, a 1 in a million chance is the definition of a miracle?

Mine would have to be writing sick notes for a friend and I all the way through the 3rd year at secondary school. Right at the end of summer term, the games master summoned us and showed us an example each of my handiwork and a real note from both our respective parents. Stupidly, we'd both had dentist's appointments on the same day but I hadn't translated the real notes into fake ones to retain consistency. Miraculously, he hadn't bothered to keep any of the previous notes and completely let us off, believing it was a single end of term prank!

Ian, your story reminded me of this one. It might seem a bit morbid, but it's quite funny really.

My father, who was in hospital, was intending to sell up and move. My cousin went to his house to begin to clear things out, and I was going to fly out from the UK to the US to help with this. My father died the day before my flight. My cousin was already there, so all the following fell to her to do.

There had been raging thunderstorms all day, and it was now 9 or 10 at night with the weather still just as bad. The hospital phoned her and said, "We know it's late, but the storm has knocked out our morgue refrigeration, so would it be possible to arrange with a funeral home to pick him up now?"

She phoned round and found a funeral director who was willing to do this. Then about 15 minutes later the phone rang again. "This is the funeral home. We'll be out to the hospital as soon as possible, but right now the storm has knocked out our electric garage doors and we can't get the hearse out."

To get the most out of the anecdote, you have to understand that this is EXACTLY the sort of thing that would tickle my father's sense of humour. So we both ended up laughing like drains and wondering whether he planned it all.

To top it off, after five years of legal wrangling there came the very final hearing to settle the estate once and for all. About 10 minutes before this hearing, the courthouse was phoned up with a bomb threat and had to be evacuated for an hour. Which seemed somehow fitting.