Serendipity: Small World, Big Surprises

Last night I was invited by my friend Faith to join a dinner in a cozy Italian Restaurant at the upper west side.  Faith told me there will be a party of five or six people altogether.

I sat next to a Chinese couple Sven and Ay-Whang who have been living in New York for a long time and Ay-Whang said, “My husband was born in Sweden as his father was Chinese ambassador to Sweden during the World War II”.

I have never been to Sweden, but I had heard a lot about the country from my father when I was a child as he was also there as a diplomat during the World War II. So I told them about my father and Sven asked me what my maiden name was. When I told him my name, Tsuchiya, his expression suddenly changed as his father told him about my father as both of them were in Sweden at the same time. Apparently they got to know each other well and became friends.

Fate brought them together again as both men were sent to New York in the fifties and what was more surprising was Sven and my brother Tai became room mates at a boarding school, Riverdale.

It was a very emotional moment for both Sven and I as we were reminded of our early teens. All the memories of New York in the 50th came back.

Sven asked me how my brother was and I had to tell him the sad news that he died almost eight years ago. My brother became a lawyer but, suffered from Alzheimer’s when he was a little over 50 years old and then had a stroke which took his life away.

Sven was so kind as to say he wanted me to take flowers to Tai and my father’s cemetery when I was back in Japan. However, as strange as it sounds, my brother and father are not buried in the same cemetery. My father would have been very upset if he got to know about this as they were very close.  What happened was that my brother became a Catholic after he found out he had Alzheimer’s and he had been rejected from my father’s cemetery when he died as it was a Buddhist temple.

Life is strange as only one hour ago Sven and I were complete strangers to each other. But because his wife’s small remark “ My husband was born in Sweden” brought us close together. I couldn’t get over what a small world it is that I should meet someone who knew my family so well by chance out of millions of people living in New York.