Call it serendipity, call it fate or call it luck but the unlikely reunion of Cathy Baker and Sophie Boeckenfoeide on the northern tip of Newfoundland is nothing short of a miracle.
Sophie, a 27-year-old German medical student studying at theUniversityof Freiburg, first met Cathy a decade ago in the United States, where the then-17-year-old was on a student exchange program.
Cathy, who was married at the time, was living in Seattle.
Sophie stayed for a few weeks before Cathy's daughter Emily took flight and headed to Germany to stay with Sophie's family for several months as part of the exchange program.
The families stayed in contact and, two years later, when Emily was graduating, Sophie returned to America to visit Cathy and her family.
Over the years, the families stayed in contact, so when Cathy moved to St. Anthony in late 2010 to be with her new beau Gord Hedderson, under the provincial nominee program, she emailed Sophie.
"She wrote me and told me about this international student who took care of her at the hospital (Charles S. Curtis Memorial)," Sophie said.
"In the email she wrote, ‘wouldn't it be wonderful if you could come here one day to work?'
"That was the first time I had heard about St. Anthony so I Googled it because I had no idea where it was."
Surprised at how far her ‘Washington mommy' had travelled, Sophie was even more surprised when Charles S. Curtis Memorial popped up with the top ranking in Germany's Google search engine as the number one place for international students to study surgery as a medical elective.
"It was just a weird coincidence," Sophie said.
"Surgery here in St. Anthony is really known and German students really like to come here but I didn't know that."
Right away, Sophie applied.
"I just thought, ‘well, we'll see,'" she said.
After three months her application to study in Newfoundland was approved and, late last year, she arrived for a six-week program which reunited the pair in the most bizarre circumstances.
Cathy said there was a real bond between the two families.
"It's a life-long friendship," she said.
"Even if we don't see each other or talk to each other for a long time, when we do, it's like no time has been gone at all.
"I can't describe it. It's like we are all just family. Sophie is just like a daughter, I love her that much and she's the first one to come and visit me so far," Cathy giggled.
"I feel the same way," Sophie added.
This year Sophie finishes university after seven years of study. She will spend another five years specializing in internal medicine, but her trip to northern Newfoundland will always be remembered.
"I think it is such a miracle that we met here, in St. Anthony. Ten years ago I never thought I'd be studying here in Newfoundland," Sophie said.
"I was so overwhelmed by the open hearts of the people here. I've never experienced it anywhere else in the world.
"That's exactly how I feel," Cathy said, adding "I never thought I'd be living here either.
"You just don't know where life will take you or where we will meet again."
jgraney@northernpen.ca
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