Every fall, more than 4,500 students – many away from home for the first time – arrive in Kingston. They set up stakes in one of 17 different residences available on the Queen’s campus.
Getting a room in residence is the luck of the draw. Getting the same room as your father who graduated in 1990 seems almost statistically impossible.
Yet that’s what happened to Samantha ‘Sam’ Shaw, Sc’25, and her dad, Dave, Artsci’90.
It was even more amazing because Sam was waitlisted for a room.
She says she cried when she learned she had been waitlisted but, after a few days, she got her spot.
Dave went to Queen’s in 1985. At that time, he didn’t have any trouble getting into residence. He too enrolled in engineering but moved to Physical Education and graduated in 1990. These days he is director of enrolment and financial aid at Toronto’s Crescent School.
He set up shop in Room 120 Morris Hall where he slept on the left-hand side of the room.
When Sam got into Morris, Dave told her about his room. It was, he told her, on the first floor over a side entrance, a few doors down from a bathroom. He wasn’t certain about the number, but he was sure he would know the room when he saw it.
Imagine the surprise as he entered Morris with his daughter at the start of the year and passed landmarks from his own life.
When he finally arrived at Room 120, he recognized it immediately.
“Everybody I have told doesn’t believe me,” he admits.
For Sam, this coincidence has validated her choice of Queen’s. She’s even sleeping on the same side of the room as Dave did 27 years ago.
“It felt kind of like serendipity,” says Sam. “It felt like you are meant to be here. That you made the right choice. This is one of those signs from the universe.”
These days, Dave is basking in nostalgia. He loved residence life and the conviviality of the community in which he made lifelong friends. While in university, he met his wife, Kelly Ahern, Artsci’89. She was in Victoria Hall and her family has a long connection with Queen’s.
“Residence was like summer camp,” Dave says. “It was just a wonderful time. I met some really great friends who are still friends today.”
This circle is certainly unbroken.
Do you have a Queen’s coincidence to tell us about? A great story of Queen’s generations? Tell us about it by email and your story may be featured in the upcoming edition of the Queen’s Alumni Newsletter or the Queen’s Alumni Review.
