When I was a kid, mom was a nursing assistant at a local hospital. She droned endlessly about her co-workers, of course, and among her favorites was an especially gentlemanly doctor. He distinguished himself by being kind to the staff, and they adored him for it.
And then one day, he was arrested. He was accused of being a serial rapist. Mom was apoplectic. She vigorously defended him. And then the evidence mounted, and a very public trial ensued, and he was convicted on 90-some counts. Mom was stunned and heartbroken.
A few years later, I had co-workers myself. I was working at a library. Checking in magazines one night, I was chatting with the bright young page when I came across a magazine with the doctor's face (and the headline "Insane?") on the cover. I waved it in the air. "This bastard," I snorted self-righteously, "Is guilty as hell."
Beth smiled and nodded, stretching out the moment as long as she could before chirping "That's my dad," pivoting on her heel, and walking away. She seemed to mean it, but I flat-out didn't believe her. There was just no way. Yeah, they had the same last name, and yeah, they were both black, but I wasn't buyin' what she was sellin.' It was too big of a coincidence. She was just too impish about it. She was yanking me. I demanded to see a family picture.
The next day, she brought me one. Their Christmas card, as I recall. Very festive.
While I groveled and apologized, Beth gleefully reveled in my discomfort, and a fast friendship was born. She is among the most graceful people I've ever known—evident from this anecdote, I'm sure—and also easily the smartest. Even at 16, she babbled excitedly about fractal geometry, oblivious to the fact that I had zero understanding of what she was saying. She might as well have been talking to the stuff growing on her shower curtain, but I loved her for trying. Almost as much as I loved having her around when math needed to be done.
Astoundingly, the coincidences don't end there. Maddie, too, worked in that library, and after she and I started dating, we visited her dad, a retired Columbus cop. It turns out he was in the crew who arrested Beth's dad. It was absolutely surreal to hear an alternate account of the Night They Came for Dad.