More than just a coincidence...

3 years and 1 day ago, my Aunt Victoria (or Vicki... or Aunt V) passed away. That sounds like a simple line - one that has been said many, MANY times over by people all over the world. But did their aunts mean as much to them as mine did to me?

My family has been erased by cancer. With every step that I take, another step has been erased behind me. After my aunt passed away, I was SUPPOSED to get her house. Not because I'm greedy, and spoiled... but because I'm the only person left on our side of the family. Because that house was the one place on Earth that I had left that held my childhood memories... After she died, the people that I thought I knew, changed... greed took over. Emotions turned into money. I was shattered to learn that what should have been mine was being stripped away... erased. There was nothing I could do about it. Except - get a lawyer! So that's what I did. The first one that I was referred to, I called. The assistant who answered his phone, was named Victoria.

It's not too much coincidence yet. Plenty of people in the world named Victoria, right?

So 3 years go by... legal squabbles, and we finally reach a settlement agreement. The house goes on the market and we receive 5 offers within a week. I visited, walked from room to room and said my personal goodbyes. I made peace with my anger and found much closure in letting it all go.

3 years to the DAY, the house closes. I was rushed to get paperwork notarized and fed-ex'd back to the title company. I got home from work, late... and frantically googled notaries in the city, hoping to find one who could help me that night. I called several, and got no answer. I called a lady who lived across town and was trying to talk to her and set up an appt, but her phone started cutting out (there was a bad rainstorm going on.) As I sat, waiting for a better connection, my phone chimed with a voice message. I hung up with the lady I was talking to, couldn't hear her anyway. I called the other notary back who'd just left the voice message. I went to her house soon after - she lived just up the road from me.

Here's the part where it gets a bit unbelievable...

The notary, who left a voice message at the exact time that the other lady's phone cut out - her name was Victoria... Victoria Ray Neace. She was short. She had hands like Vicki's... and she wore her lipstick - just like Vicki!

Coincidence because my own daughter is named Victoria Raye. Coincidence because we are Vicki's nieces... Coincidence because there was a Victoria at the start of this journey, and one at the very end.

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind or my heart that my aunt was speaking to me through these series of events and people.