Over the last 2-3yrs, I've had to spend a lot of time at different hospitals whilst visiting /supporting/transporting close family members for various serious treatment sessions.
I also have other family & friends who work based in hospitals, who I sometimes visit in their workplace (bear with me: I need to set some relevant context & baseline for my story.... TL-DR I am currently in hospitals more than most patients, am there nearly as often as some staff, and am utterly-familiar with them as environments)
Yesterday I was again in a major hospital in Scotland, when I saw someone wearing medical scrubs walk past me, in a busy public corridor, wearing the insignia of the Blood Transfusion Service: a comparative rarity, in my (relevant) personal experience.
This person was a total (Covid-masked) stranger to me: I looked at them and thought to myself- "that's no good- I want to see my good friend and former colleague who works for the BTS, who I haven't seen in over a decade"
So: four seconds later: my 'asked for' missing friend walks past me in the corridor....!
Masked (Covidly, I mean, the same as me and everyone else), wearing BTS insignia and medical clothing (insignia I was seeing for maybe just the second time in nearly 20yrs), we immediately recogised each-other, paused, greeted the other by first name, exchanged brief pleasantries, and carried on our respective ways.
This could very-nearly be an "It Happened To Me" in addition to being coincidental.
I absolutely must emphasise: I cannot decide whether this encounter was more (or less) coincidental as a function of the fact that it was in a context for which I could be considered as being an 'equalised local' within...it was/is like a second home to me.
Would this encounter have been more of a coincidence if I'd never set foot in a hospital for over a decade, and then seen him? In some ways yes: but in other ways no.
This is an interesting thought: in some ways, there's been an inadvertant experiment in the nature of coincidences, going on here. Hear me out:
- I was 'localised' (as was he) to that setting
- We were both semi-anonymised (masked)
- I was somehow subliminally-prepared to see him (it was as if he was summoned)
- Neither of us were in the least-bit surprised to see the other, yet the encounter was (empirically/experientially) unprecidented within that (or indeed any other previous recent) context
- We achieved instantaneous accurate interpersonal recognition with almost zero prep/prompt time: as if we were both expecting to see the other.
I feel this was an interesting example...somehow....of: coincidental coincidentallity.
But how do you interpret this? (and don't neglect my observations on equalisation of context)
EDIT
Clearly the perfect capstone to this incident would be to find-out whether or not my friend had exactly the same type of premonitionary personation prelude as myself.
When I next see him (which might well be a decade from now, the way the world now operates) I shall ask him.