STUART ROTHENBERG, POLITICAL ANALYST, WAS PART OF A SERENDIPITY STORY
When my husband sees Stuart Rothenberg, political analyst, on TV, Mike says, “There’s your guy.” To be sure I hadn’t exaggerated the story of the transaction that involved them, I wrote the Rothenbergs to ask how they remembered it.
(I don’t want to have unconsciously changed a story to make it better and I don’t want to shape their memories, so I don’t ask people to confirm what I remember. Instead, I ask, “How to you remember …?”)
Here is Mrs. Rothenberg’s response to my question.
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2012 9:09 PM
Subject: Stuart Rothenberg - Coincidence
Hello,
Sorry for my delay in responding to your question about the coincidence involved in the sale of our house in Silver Spring, MD. I remain amazed at the whole thing. Here's what I remember:
When the offer was presented to us, the current address of the buyers was listed on one of the papers. When I saw Summit Hill, PA, my first thought was that somehow you had found out my old family address. Their address was East Hazard Street. My mother grew up and lived on West Hazard Street. I lived in the town until I was 13 and moved to Maryland in 1963.
After talking more, we found out that the buyers were indeed living in Summit Hill temporarily in the home of the wife of the couple, who was in fact from Summit Hill. It's a small town in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania that no one has ever heard of. In 2000, the population of Summit Hill was under 3000. So the coincidence was striking.
I don't think they knew my husband's name. The connection was between me and the woman and Summit Hill. I didn't know her or her family personally and she didn't know mine. But she knew many of my relatives and we discovered that my cousin was one of her high-school teachers.
This offer came after our house had been on the market for several months. We had already purchased another house and were ready to move.
We were getting concerned. So there seemed to be something magical about the coincidence.
As if that weren't enough, in the new development where we had purchased, we discovered that the family of a classmate of my son's had bought a house on the same street. The woman of that couple had been in my childbirth exercise class when we were both pregnant 15 years earlier.
That's the story.
Best,
Elaine R. Rothenberg
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