20 Stories From People Who Experienced The Most Unlikely Of Things

Everyone has experienced something unlikely at least once in their lifetime. It's the kind of event that makes you question if there is a higher power or if it's just pure luck. Redditor u/yankeevandal asked folks to share the most “statistically improbable” thing that has happened to them and sparked an interesting online discussion. These events may seem unbelievable, but they are all true stories that happened to real people. It just goes to show that sometimes life can surprise us in the most unexpected ways.

#1 I received my heart transplant after being on the list for only 7 hours.

Image source: dekion101, Olga Guryanova

#2

I got a degree after aging out of foster care ☺️ Image source: joylm

#3 Got left a written message to call a girl, mistakenly called another girl instead with the same name....we've been married for 14 years.

Image source: anon, Marília Castelli

#4

My hand eye coordination is horrible, I can't hit where I aim no matter what. My husband and I were throwing leftover water balloons at each other when miracles of miracles. I aimed for his chest and hit his groin, as he was doubled over screaming in pain I let another one fly. That one landed in his wide open mouth perfectly. I was so proud of myself! Image source: Beffis777

#5

Not an exciting life or death incident, but something rather sweet: I took care of my late father for the final two years of his life. He had Alzheimer’s and pulmonary fibrosis, among other issues, so we had a lot more bad days than good. In the summer of 2019, I took my dad out for a “date” one day to a historic old drugstore that has phenomenal milkshakes (one of his favorite foods in the world). It was one of Dad’s increasingly rare good days, where he chatted merrily with me about all sorts of old memories. I felt like I had my dad’s former self back for just a little while. We had such a wonderful time that I intended to take him there again soon. However, this ended up being our last “date.” For most of the remainder of that year, Dad declined too much (mentally and physically) for me to take him out for anything other than very short grocery trips or to appointments. The following year . . . enter the pandemic. It was a very, very rough year with Dad. In January of 2021, my father died, alone, in a hospital in another state (our state ran out of hospital beds and he had suffered a traumatic fall that required hospitalization). That day in 2019 ended up being the last truly happy day I had with my Dad and the last fun outing he ever got to experience. Three months after my dad died, I met a wonderful man online. (Nine days after signing up for a one year membership, because “surely it’s going to take time to find someone truly compatible with a shy nerd like me!”) A few months later, we decided to try a first date. He lived three hours away, but wanted me to be comfortable, so he volunteered to drive to my town for the date. He looked online for an appealing restaurant to suggest, and excitedly told me about this really neat historic drugstore we could go to. . . . We went on a very crowded day (local festival — oops) and had to wait quite a while for a table. The waitress sat us at the EXACT same table where I sat with my dad nearly two years earlier! I was even in the same seat. Three months later, we got engaged at that drugstore. So the beginning of the end of one chapter of my life crossed paths with the beginning of the best (so far) chapters. My husband and I have since decided to make a trip back there at least once a year. Dad really would have loved my husband. Image source: Used-Toe-6374

#6

First got cancer in 1993. In 2003, they told me to get my affairs in order, I had 6 months. In 2021, they told me it's spread to my bones and lungs. They gave me 5 years. In 2023, two years down and feeling about 90% Image source: fabyooluss

#7

My son died at 11 months old for 2 1/2 minutes. I got to hold him as he took his first breaths, hold him while he took his last breaths and then got to hold him as he took his first breaths again. It’s something as a mother I don’t wish on anyone. It was by far the scariest night of my life. I’ll never forget it, New Years Eve 2007 in Fairbanks, AK. My son statistically was not supposed to survive the pregnancy. I nearly lost him 3 times in the first trimester, I started going into active labor at 20 weeks, got put on strict bed rest and then developed preeclampsia. I also had hyperemesis through the whole pregnancy, I couldn’t even hold down water and needed daily IV fluid and nutrition. I was 17 lbs lighter than my pre pregnancy weight when I delivered him at 39 weeks. By all of that he shouldn’t be here now. To make things even weirder the doctor that kept me from losing him in my pregnancy was the doctor that treated him in Alaska. A completely different hospital, all the way across the country from where we first met. It felt like divine intervention to see his face and I knew deep in my soul my son was going to be ok. My son is a happy, healthy teenager now. I am sitting here crying thinking about that night. It definitely still feels like a gut punch when I think about it. Image source: iwishiwereonabeach

#8

Riding my bicycle on a commercial fishing pier as a kid I lost control and rode off the edge with a 20' drop to exposed rocks at low tide. I tried to stop myself going over by planting my feet on the edge of the pier, but I knew my bike was too heavy. Somehow the bike stopped, halfway over at a 45 degree angle. However now the seat was in the small of my back preventing me from getting off, and I couldn't budge it at all to get the bike back up. A fisherman finally ran over to help me and we decided he would pull me as hard as he could and I'd let the bike fall. I jumped to the side as he pulled me back to the pier, and it worked. However. My bike was still there, not moving at all. When I examined what had happened, there was a piece of rebar sticking out from the edge of the pier bent upwards in an L shape, and it passed diagonally through the spokes of my front tire and completely wedged my bike in place. It was the ONLY spot on the 300' long pier with ANYTHING sticking out. I most certainly *did not* stop myself and my bike from going over. Image source: Vandesco, Dan Russo

#9 i have been hit in the head by live squirrels three times in my life each on separate occasions.

Image source: AdjunctAngel, Ilnur Kalimullin

#10

Many years ago I had a terrible day where my then GF broke up with me, then I did terribly in a final exam for a college class, then I lost my wallet, and finally, as I was doing the Charlie Brown sad walk back home some random branch broke off a tree as I was walking on the sidewalk underneath it and the damn thing fell on top of me and hit me square across the shoulder and knocked me to the ground. I just burst out laughing because it was so ridiculous. Image source: Tough_Stretch

#11

My friend was going to Ireland to visit her extended family for the first time and invited me along. We had a great time meeting her aunts and uncles, seeing the beautiful sights, etc. On our last night in Ireland, the family all got together for dinner, some rousing laughs, and a general awesome time. Her cousin had been traveling that week and was only in town for one night and so she and her boyfriend swung by to say hi and bye. They left for the airport to NYC and we went to sleep, getting up at 4am to catch our own flight to NYC. Two days later, I had to be in NYC for a job interview. I wasn't familiar with the Wall St. area, so I went extra early just in case I couldn't find it. But as luck would have it, I found it with no problem and had 40 minutes to kill. I had no idea what to do, considered getting food but didn't want to risk staining my clothes or having an upset stomach or anything, so I wandered around a little until I stumbled on the Barnes & Noble bookstore. Thinking this was perfect, I went in and walked slowly through the store looking for somewhere to sit. There weren't any sort of private spaces on the first floor so I found the escalator and started heading up. As I approach the halfway mark, I see a young couple going down on the escalator. As our eyes meet, we recognize each other and at the exact same time, as we both met halfway up/down the escalator, we pointed to each other and turned as we passed each other, mouths open in shock. My Friend's Cousin and Her Boyfriend. Two nights ago I had met them for the first time and we had been laughing and sharing food and wine in her aunt's house In IRELAND. And now here we are, crossing paths exactly halfway on the escalator. A moment sooner or later and we would have completely missed each other. She quickly came back up the escalator and we chatted about how CRAZY this coincidence was. I nailed the job interview too because I just felt this surge of Right Time Right Place-ness that meant I was supposed to be there. I was so full of confidence and optimism, I made the whole panel of interviewers laugh and talk comfortably with me and got the job! Image source: qbeanz

#12 Got attacked by a robin in the morning, then attacked by a hawk 3 hours later. Weird day.

Image source: BlackberryNeon, Elisa Stone

#13 Lost my house in civil court. Represented myself and won in appeals court twice. Since my case was unique in this state, my cases were published both times. Moving back into my old house soon.

Image source: CrimeBot3000, Benjamin Rascoe

#14 I was on a road trip with my cousins in the 80s. One of them kept playing the same song over and over by rewinding the tape and playing it again. The song was “another one bites the dust”. After three plays in a row the driver pulls out the tape, says enough! And turned on the radio… Sure enough that song was playing on the radio right then.

Image source: misterdudebro

#15 My dads birthday was 3-3, my brother is 6-6, mine is 7-7 and my son is 11-11.

Image source: Onion_4148, lil artsy

#16 My wife and I (both right handed) had two left handed kids. Which has around a 1% chance of happening twice.

Image source: clocks212, Kelly Sikkema

#17

Broke free of a 10 year addiction to m**h. Took a very long time to feel some kind of normal again. 10 years clean this year, woohoo Image source: tonberrykang

#18

Picking the slowest checkout lane in the grocery store every single time for the last 40 or so years. Image source: Mental_Poet5432

#19

Met my husband shortly after I moved to a new town. He had moved there about a month earlier. Found out on our first date that we lived about four blocks away from each other - I'd picked a restaurant close to my house if I needed to bail. We both walked to our first date. I'm sure he thought I was a drama Queen at first, two of my friends died within two weeks of each other (I was mid 30s, both were 40 or under). He called for our second date while I was shopping for a funeral dress (she was very stylish, so we dressed to the nines). He called for our third date while I was still processing the sudden death of a dear friend that morning. Bless him, he assessed the situation, asked if I still wanted to go do something in a few days (I said yes, but I couldn't make decisions right now, so could he just plan something), he said "yep, do you need to talk?" I said no, and he said "I will let you know when I figure something out, I'm so sorry," then hung up. He did exactly what I asked him to do in the moment and took all the pressure off about his part of my situation. Now he's sitting in our living room with a cat in his lap. ♥️ Image source: kategoad

#20

Husband and I visited our old hometown and went to a used book store we used to frequent. I picked up a familiar title in nostalgia and flipped it open to find a school student’s ID card. The name and photo on the ID? My husband. Turns out his mom had donated books to that store many years before we all moved away from that area. He must have been using it as a bookmark and forgotten. It’s not so surprising considering we used to live in that area, but the ID was nearly 10 years old by the time we found it. That book was sitting on the shelf for nearly a *decade* untouched, waiting for me to come along and pick it up. Bizarre. Image source: misshepburn15, Tom Hermans