When my mom and dad were dating, my mom wasn’t living at home (she was already in her late twenties) and she had the shadchan calling her most of the time instead of her mom. So one neighborhood lady didn’t know that, so she called my grandmother to set my dad up with my mom. However, at the same time, my mom had agreed to go out with someone else ON THE SAME NIGHT! My mom and grandmother each only knew about one (my grandmother was going to tell my mom the day before, like they usually did, and my mom was going to tell my grandmother afterward).
Then the other guy, the one my mom agreed to go out with, had someone bump into his car in Brooklyn or someplace, and by the time he got a chance to call my mom to apologize for missing the date, she had already gone out with my dad (after a bit of confusion and a looong explanation from my grandmother) and had agreed to go out again. Sooooo… as they say, it was bashert!
Speaking of which, my dad got redt to my mom in the first place after my aunt (who had just moved to the area where my mom lived) was at a kiddush and was chatting with some neighbor. The neighbor mentioned “Do you know of anyone for my friend’s daughter, blah blah blah…” and my aunt mentioned “Oh, I have a single brother, blah blah blah….” and the rest, as they say, was history.
Never underestimate the power of shidduch networking!