Serendipity takes me everywhere, and when I say everywhere I mean sometimes I want to check the lottery tickets kind of lucky. Today has been one of those days.

It started when I went to look for info about plane tickets that may or may not change due to coronavirus restrictions. While waiting I got an email that said I need a copy of my Dad’s death certificate to go with my request for reimbursement for my plane ticket home. I left the travel agency and went to the post office where the letter with the death certificate had arrived. Also a letter from my Aunt Maggie but more on that in a minute.

Then I traveled to the food court at the Exchange. Usually I pick my food choice on the shortest line but today (Serendipity) the lunch I wanted was the shortest line. I headed for the line and right before I got there two people walked up and got there before me. No problem, just took a little longer to order. But when I did order, the number they would call for me to pick up my food was my favorite single digit number, nine (I have favorite multi-digit numbers all the way up to 8 because who needs a favorite 9 digit number?). Kind of a weak point, but still a point.

Then, while eating, I got an email from someone about a meeting tomorrow. I try to avoid meetings whenever possible but this one in particular would involve two people I know will have difficulty communicating. Both will think they know what the other is trying to tell them and both will be wrong, so I’m particularly not looking forward to this. The only way to make this meeting worse would be if it were telephonic. The email said the party that has to travel would not be able to make it and asked if it were possible to make it a telephonic meeting. But here’s the silver lining, no matter if I try hard or not it might not happen, not trying too hard to make it work is an option. In a rare confluence of events I have the ability to answer with the Corps of Engineers motto: Essayons! Which is french for We Can Try! Ordinarily I would say that we can do sans french but in this case it just feels right.

Now a brief departure from today’s events as a way of explanation. Last week I had a passing thought that was one of those questions I would have normally asked my Dad. He isn’t here to answer, which makes me the keeper of useless knowledge, however, I can’t keep what I don’t know. The question I pondered was where his middle name, Douglas, came from? It isn’t a family name so where did it come from? This brings me back to Aunt Maggie’s letter.

I haven’t gotten a chance to read correspondence from Aunt Maggie since she got back from sailing around the world (approximately 1982-2003 and mostly just to Europe but that was ‘around the world’ to us Mississippi Coast residents). Excited I opened it up, it included a picture of her holding my Dad when he was just a few months old. She shared a few anecdotes of his younger years but then I flipped over to page two. There on the other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else on the other side (OK, not really but how often do I get to quote Alice’s Restaurant?) There she asked me if I knew where Dad’s middle name came from.

As much as I’m used to Serendipity taking me everywhere there are times She still floors me.

Post Script to the Blog:

It’s almost anti-climactic to say that Mama Byrd was a big fan of Douglas MacArthur and that’s where Dad’s middle name came from. And never mind the fact that it seems my luck ran out because I can’t find where I put Dad’s Lottery Ticket numbers when I got home to try and check them.

And just as anti-climatic but ever so important, the caveat explanation of redundant repetition: to me Serendipity, Coincidence, Luck, and Karma are all synonyms for Providence.