What Are The Odds?

June 2025

At nine o'clock one evening in San Francisco, I somehow ended up buying a ticket to Saint Lucia, a small island in the Caribbean.

Once that decision had been made, I immediately posted a question in the WhatsApp group for the Travelers' Century Club.

"I'm heading to Saint Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, and Guadeloupe. Does anyone have recommendations?"

I assumed I would hear from someone eventually.

Five minutes later, Jason replied from Toronto, where it was already midnight.

"Lucinda, I just got back from those four islands. I'd be happy to tell you about my trip."

The Travelers' Century Club (TCC) is an international club for people who've traveled to more than 100 countries and territories.

Thanks to Jason, I spent a wonderful Christmas at Mango Lodge in Dominica, where the delightful French proprietors, Stéphane and Karine, prepared a fabulous Christmas feast for their guests.

Another person I met through TCC was a Brit named Iain, who had a home in Cyprus. We first crossed paths at the 2022 conference in Malta, and when I mentioned I was planning to visit Cyprus the following year, he offered to be there and show me around.

Iain & me in 2023

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December 2025

Six months later, I'm on my overnight flight to Miami, looking forward to my first business-class experience after taking Ben's Points & Miles course.

American Airlines and I apparently had a different understanding of business class.

I thought it meant I'd have a lie-flat bed and actually sleep on the overnight flight from San Francisco to Miami. American Airlines thought it meant the seat was a little wider.

I did not sleep.

Ben had told me the Turkish Lounge at Miami International was excellent.

Since I was still recovering from my second knee replacement surgery, I was grateful for wheelchair assistance which took me—and my six weeks' worth of luggage—straight to the Turkish Lounge.

I sat down across from the breakfast buffet, clutching a cup of coffee, too exhausted to know whether I even wanted breakfast.

A man was moving slowly back and forth in front of the buffet, studying the choices. From where I was sitting, I could see his profile.

Wow... that man looks a lot like Iain.

He's still there.

Gosh... he really does look a lot like Iain.

He wandered a little farther down the buffet, then drifted back again.

I wonder if that actually is Iain.

By this point, the thought finally made the long journey from my sleep-deprived brain down to my mouth.

"Iain?"

He turned around.

"Lucinda! Oh my God! What are you doing here?"

Iain joined me, and we caught up.

He was on his way to the Bahamas. I was on my way to Saint Lucia to begin my Caribbean journey.

Every few minutes, one of us would shake our heads and say,

"What are the odds?"

Miami International is enormous.

"I could have been in a different terminal," Iain said.

"I could have been looking out the window instead of watching you study the buffet," I laughed.

"What if I'd just grabbed breakfast right away?" he parried.

"I almost didn't say anything because I wasn't sure it was you."

Any one of those tiny changes, and we would have passed through the same airport without ever knowing the other was there.

Instead, he'd lingered at the breakfast buffet just long enough for my foggy brain to recognize his profile and eventually persuade my mouth to say one word.

"Iain."

When it was time to head for our separate gates, we were both still laughing in disbelief.

Before my flight to Saint Lucia was even in the air, I'd already told my seatmate the whole story.

"Wow," she said. "What are the odds?"

"That's exactly what we said.”