More to come in this Danish series, I hope!
Here's a story about what happened to us at this Meijer:
One day, when we were grocery shopping, an older lady stopped us in the aisle between the scented candles and the toys as we walked toward the electronics section (probably on our way to get cat food). She looked hesitant, so I assumed she was going to ask if we could help her find something. She wrung her hands and asked if she could say something to us. Of course, we said yes, a little curious.
"What a beautiful young couple! How did a guy like you get a girl like her?"
We smiled and thought the moment was a bit awkward, but said our thank yous, shrugged it off when she had gone, and promptly forgot about it.
A few weeks later, we were walking down the aisle in between the scented candles and the toys, chatting and looking at a our shopping list, when a lady stops us. My heart froze-- I swear up and down that it was the exact same lady! Same hesitant tone, same hand wringing. Before she opened her mouth, I knew what she was going to say-- and it scared the heck out of me.
"What a beautiful young couple! How did a guy like you get a girl like her?"
"J-just lucky, I guess..." I stammered, feeling panicky, like my throat was about to close or that I was going to throw up.
For a long awkward moment, she stared at us, smiling, with no recognition in her face. We tried to be genial and say thank you, but couldn't get away from her fast enough.
I stopped stock still and looked at my husband. "Oh my God, did you--"
"That was totally the same lady." My husband is a no-nonsense kind of guy, and the fact that he acknowledged the impossible situation made my face go white. For the rest of our shopping trip, not only were we in a total state of shock, we were always looking over our shoulders to make sure we didn't see her again. We couldn't shake the feeling that the universe had cracked a little bit.
Let me reassure you: we are scientists. We don't really think this kind of thing can happen. We'd laugh if someone told us this story and think they were a little crazy, or that it wasn't really the same lady, because of course nothing like this could be true. But it did. I have no explanation.
We no longer walk down that aisle... just in case.