I landed in Paris from Copenhagen couriering three large boxes of documents and mail between corporate offices and discovered my passport had been lifted in the night. I went to the embassy and was told the opnly thing they could accept as proof of who I was would be a birth certificate or a testimony from an American citizen, before they could issue me a temporary passport. I needed to get to Lisbon in a hurry. Not knowing where to turn, I called on the only people I knew in Paris, a couple who had lived in my home town for a spell, and lo and behold who should come walking in but an 80-year old widow from my home town in Connecticut who had been my grade school principle. I hadn't seen her in thirty years, and she had justhappened to decide to take a world tour and stop off at the same address in Paris to see the same people. I didn't know they even knew each other.

She was happy to come down and give evidence on my behalf so I could get a temporary passport. Saved me weeks of waiting! Taslk about serendipity.

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