Man pulled over to ask a random lady about a rocketship — found a connection when she showed him his picture on her phone

Most of the time, the people we meet are just strangers to us. We go about our day without thinking there could be any real connection there. But every now and then, something unexpected comes up and changes that. Magic like this unfolded for Anthony Clark Pierce (@anthonyclarkpierce), the film producer and special effects artist. In an Instagram video, he recorded an almost mystical encounter with an old woman at the edge of a sea, who turned out to be someone rooted in his own life. The video has been viewed 1.7 million times.

Surprise encounter with a stranger

The film director exclaimed that the chances of something like this happening are around “3 bazillion million trillion gazillion to one,” and his mind was still processing the instance. It all happened when Pierce pulled over to look for a rocket. The lady was passing by, so he asked her whether it was a good place to see the rocket ship. After a few minutes of chit-chat, the elderly lady asked if his name was Tony. To their surprise, it was indeed. 

Unbelievable coincidence

At first, Pierce doubted that she might have grasped his name from the back of his car, but it turned out she even had full-fledged evidence. When he acknowledged his name, she showed her a photograph of him at a film festival. He was obviously flabbergasted. “The woman that I asked is my biological grandmother, whom I've never met in my life.” The incident instantly jolted his mind into a trail of questions about life, unexpected connections, and fate. “I can't even wrap my mind around what is happening right now,” he confessed, exclaiming, “This is really happening. How is this even possible?”

Every human is distantly connected

While Pierce might still be in a blissful shock after this encounter, according to researchers, encounters like these are not rare. Researchers from Northern Arizona University’s Department of Biological Sciences published a study in the journal Natural Science documenting how closely related random people in a population are. Using mathematics, they deduced that although every human is distantly connected, a random pair of people has a 50% chance of sharing an ancestor. In fact, within seven generations for a population of 20,000, sixth cousins are almost inevitable.

Viewers were jostled into just as much shock as Pierce, as the instance forced them to believe in miracles and God. @vega12974 called it a “God moment.” @chelsyvento said, “Nothing like this happens by accident. You both were there, you took the necessary steps needed, and fulfilled your destinies! You were meant to be united." @inspiredwithjane remarked, “Nothing happens by chance. Your gift arrived when you needed it!”

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