I rarely read the obituaries in newspapers...
However, on one memorable occasion I did carefully search through (decades ago) a 'deaths notice' published in the Royal Air Force news paper (a boring rag I would normally not pick up or read). For some reason I was lead to a tiny notice concerning the death of a friend, someone I had not contacted for a few months. It was quite a shock.
Or the time, as a young teenager I had entered a boxing competition to be soundly beaten by the county champ. By accident, weeks later I found an old worn out newspaper in a Barber's shop which confirmed in a few short lines that my 'Trainer' had set me up for the beating. There was no other way I would have known that my opponent was not the absolute novice boxer the Trainer had claimed, without having
read the months old forgotten crumpled article.
These days, if I casually decide to conduct an internet search on a person known from years ago - that individual has either *passed away (relatively recently) or there are significant events tied to their lives that I had been unaware of. Only yesterday I had the feeling that a former close friend of 30 years ago may have died - this was confirmed by his Wife publishing a recent 'help' notice on an obscure ex-Forces Reunion website and was my link to the old friend - I had never met his wife.
In another example, a Chinese acquaintance who had disappeared without a trace for several years - was found to be serving out a prison sentence. Soon after the senior hierarchy (unrelated) of my old Church were under suspicion of misusing funds with the threat of their imprisonment still a real possibility. Without going into the details - there were odd connections.
Another odd event is when I deliberate on whether, or what to send in an email, ie its final content - the intended recipient will often send an email 'reply' seconds or minutes before mine is send.
My strangest revelation to-date was discovering the existence of an 'unknown brother' and just as unlikely, the way in which he had been 'accidentally' found, and contacted.
Similar less profound events continue to occur on a consistent basis. Most (if not all) begin at an intense subconscious level deep in the recess of my mind.
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A few examples are i) the occasion when I needed to visit a specific location but must at all costs avoid a certain person in the process. On my return from the location and seated in a taxi - my mobile phone rang. The person I needed to avoid at all costs (in this particular metropolis of 4 million people) spoke into my phone saying - xxxx is that you? Are you in the backseat of a taxi? The person I wished to avoid was driving right by in his car.
Ii) A highly religious individual whom I had left on bad terms a few days earlier, appeared on the busiest footpath in a City junction directly facing me - no one else around; Such was our embarrassment we almost danced to get past each other and on our way.
Iii) I called into a Cinema to watch a movie. The ticket collector asked me (the Cinema was crowded and I was in a busy queue) a strange question without any reason for doing so... For some reason he addressed my by my name (which is uncommon and French (I live in Australia) asking me to confirm whether I was that person... Nothing else. (I had not ever been to that cinema). The doorman was not there on leaving the Cinema - so I was left wondering how/why this complete stranger knew me.
Iv) Another stranger (met only once in my life for 5 minutes in a foreign city, Kuala Lumpur, thanked me profusely in an email for advising him to buy a certain 'self help' paperback and that everything I said the book would do to help him in his life was realised soon after our meeting! (all I had left him with was a business card with my contact details)