I returned to my parents' home to attend a funeral. At the temple, my mother led me to a man who looked vaguely familiar. "Barbara, remember Rabbi Green?" she asked as she left me in his company.   

I frantically tried to place him, and suddenly it came to me. He was the kind man who, five years earlier, had officiated at my grandmother's funeral. "It's good to see you again, Rabbi," I said. "Though I wish it weren't always under such tragic circumstances."   

The rabbi looked perplexed but uttered some words of consolation before he was called away. A few minutes later, I rejoined my mother.   

"Imagine,"she whispered, "after all this time, to run into the rabbi who performed your wedding!"