Laura Buxton loved her grandparents. And when the older couple celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary, Laura was so thrilled to be a part of the party. The British girl, only 10 years old, was given the important task at the celebration of making sure the celebratory balloons were properly wrangled. She was going to release several balloons when the time was right at the end of the party.

But, before she turned the helium-filled balloons loose, Laura’s granddad told her, “Why don’t you write your name on one of them before you let it go?” So, Laura wrote a note that had her name and phone number on it and tied it to one of the balloons. She and her grandparents released them all together, and Laura watched as the one with her name on it rose and rose until it caught a high wind and was carried out of sight.

A few days later, Laura had almost forgotten about the balloon. She came home from school and was eating a snack when the phone rang. When Laura answered, she heard a young girl’s voice say, “Hi, is this Laura?” The voice on the other end of the phone then told Laura a story. It seems that the balloon with her name on it had been found almost 150 miles away in the back yard of a farmer. The farmer, who lived close to the girl and had no daughters of his own, brought the deflated balloon to the girl.

As the two girls talked, they excitedly realized that they had a lot in common. The other girl was about the same age. They both loved horses, and they each had a guinea pig. They liked the same subjects in school. And during the phone call, the two jabbered on like they were old friends. Their parents thought the whole situation was cute and interesting, the fact that the two would meet because of the note tied to the balloon. The girls both begged their parents to let them meet somewhere halfway between their two houses, and both sets of parents agreed.

When Laura arrived to meet her new friend, she was a little nervous, so she’d brought her pet guinea pig with her to show the other girl and to also have something they could talk about when they met in case it was awkward. After all, they’d never met before. But Laura felt a closeness to this other girl, and it was something she couldn’t really explain. And when the girl arrived with her parents, and she jumped out of the car and ran to Laura, both of them were surprised that the girl, too, had brought her pet guinea pig with her.

And that’s not all. both girls, with no pre-planning or discussion, had decided to wear the same color clothing that day. They found they that each owned a three year old black Labrador dog. They also both had pet rabbits. They were roughly the same height with the same hair and eye color.

It was the last thing that the two girls had in common that ultimately shocked everyone involved. Now, please know that this first meeting took place over a decade ago. Both girls are grown now, and they still meet each other when they can. They are both in university now, and they are still amazed at these remarkable string of coincidences. However, the last coincidence is probably the most remarkable.

You see, the girl who called Laura Buxton, the girl who shared all those things in common with her new-found friend, she was also named Laura Buxton.