The 2017 Coincidences Freeman Dyson Called a Mystery

The late Professor Freeman Dyson once described the coincidences below to me as a “mystery”:

A. Otto F. Warmbier, a UVA McIntire School of Commerce student and former North Korea prisoner, died on June 19, 2017. I am a graduate of the UVA McIntire School of Commerce.

B. Heather D. Heyer, a bankruptcy paralegal, was killed on August 12, 2017, during the demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia. I was once a bankruptcy paralegal, and I lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, for four years while attending UVA.

C. A child was killed on August 20, 2017, during a domestic violence incident in the Baity Hill family housing community at UNC. The Baity Hill family housing community was built after my graduation from the UNC School of Law, around the house where I once lived during law school—Ms. Baity’s old house.

D. A fatal helicopter crash occurred in Medford, Burlington County, New Jersey, on September 8, 2017. One of the victims in that crash lived in the Nashville area, in Franklin, Tennessee. A couple of my apartment mates at UVA had once lived in Burlington County, in Medford Lakes. I had previously visited both Franklin and Burlington County. The fatal Duke Life Flight helicopter crash in Perquimans County, North Carolina, also occurred on September 8, 2017. I was once a patient at Duke University Hospital.

E. Brock Long, a native of Catawba County, North Carolina, was the FEMA Administrator who led FEMA’s response to the 2017 hurricanes. I am also a native of Catawba County, and I once played tennis against Long when we were teenagers. September 2017 was the busiest month of Atlantic hurricane activity on record.