Like I have already expressed, I’m not really a believer in coincidence and I have yet another example of that. On our drive to church last Sunday, I had summer travels on my mind. I’m not sure where all we will go, but we have been invited to a wedding and we’re trying to consider the logistics and who we can bump into and hug along the way (yes, this is the piece of me that is so much like Pauline Hawkins Helsel. I embrace it.)
Anyhoo, as we drove, I thought I would send a message to a graduate from Penang (Class of 2019), who I knew was attending grad school at Georgia Tech. If we’re going to be in Georgia, I need to collect information about who we might be able to see while we are there. I texted and asked him if he’d be there in the summer. He said he would be, but right now, he was in Texas. He asked where we were in Texas and he then said, “Want to meet for lunch?” I was super shocked to find out that he would be in our city that day.
Matthew and his family were our neighbors in our apartment complex in Penang for four years. Matthew was a good friend to Ryan and the most patient teen with Chase. Little Chase would go over there regularly after school and talk to Matthew. Matthew would show him and explain the cool projects he was working on. He graduated in 2019 and headed to the States. His family went with him for a year and were supposed to return–but COVID. Their apartment sat empty for the last three years we were there, and we haven’t seen them since.
Apparently, Matthew had to come to Austin to set up some cool technology for our solar eclipse event on Monday the 8th. His team is collecting information about the ionosphere and although that’s not my field of science, it was awesome to learn a little bit about it. So, my nudge to send him a message led to some texting which led to him joining us for dinner!
Matthew blew into the house like a breath of fun fresh air. It was so joyful to be in his presence again after 5 years. There was so much conversation and SO much laughter. It was sweet and it was no co-inky-dink.
sharonbernhardt 