Death seems to obsess this thread — understandably: LH's post above is typical. Mrrzy deals with marriage, but the karma here turned out a bit no-no. My own marriage was the result of just having caught a boat which my family & I almost missed — ferry from St Malo to Dinard about midday 18 Oct 1956. The boat was pulling away from the quay when two English girls drew attentn of crew to some English people hurrying to catch, and the crew most obligingly [& such crews, French or otherwise, not always so obliging, esp when there will be another boat along in only ½-hr] put back the 10 metres or so to let us board. Long-story-short, I spent a blissful ½-century married to one of those girls, until her death a couple of years ago.

Don't know about 'fate' - BUT if girls not so helpful, if crew not so obliging, if girls not so polite as to agree to a drink with us that evening on my father's grateful insistence, who knows how my life would have turned out? I certainly shouldn't be sitting right where I am now, doing what I am doing, typing this into this thread...