To some, life can seem a series of coincidences, but for Durban couple Cath Jenkin and Luke Venediger, fate and numbers played an integral part in making sure their paths crossed 27 years later.
It’s the very reason they chose to marry on 22/2/22 at 2.22pm at their Durban home in front of close family and friends.
On February 22, the world experienced an unparalleled milestone: the date 2/22/22. It happened to also fall on a Tuesday, hence “Twosday”.
“The brain has evolved a fantastic capacity to find meanings and connections,” noted Barry Markovsky, professor emeritus of Sociology at the University of South Carolina, writing for The Conversation.
“Twosday is a simple example of a popular form of numerology, the practice of attaching supernatural significance to numbers,” he explained.
For Jenkin and Venediger, the significance of numerology goes far beyond that. The first time they made the incredible connection was when they were both going through their respective divorces.
“For anyone who has undergone divorce, you'll know there's a lot of paperwork. As we had done throughout our friendship, we teamed up to help each other on things. It was then that we discovered our ID numbers both add up to 47, so we called ourselves Team 47. But if you add 4+7, you get 1+1, and that's… 2,” said Jenkin.
That, she said, was their first revelation about their shared household at the time, “and things always come out in the numbers that life gives you”.
The beauty of their love story is that they met 27 years previously at some mutual friends’ house party. Both 15 years old, they formed an instant connection.
“I knew he was someone special from the second I looked at him, and there's a photo a friend snapped of us that night while we chatted the night away until sunrise,” said Jenkin.
The couple unfortunately lost contact after that, but as fate would have it, they found themselves both working in the tech sector in the early 2000s. However, it would only be several years that Jenkin’s light bulb moment occurred.
“We always commented on how we had this easy banter between us, and it was at a conference we were both speaking at when I looked at him talking and realised ’that's Luke, from 1995’,” she revealed.
15 year old me knew her shit @lukevenediger I love you, husband guy wonder. X pic.twitter.com/3TqnDanHa3
— Cath V (Taylor’s Version). (@cathjenkin) February 23, 2022
The next day she sent him a message with the photo from 1995 attached and said, "You're not going to believe this, and I hope you don't think I'm creepy, haha, but I've figured out how we know each other."
Over the next few years, their friendship withstood life’s ups and downs. While both married other partners, had children, changed careers and moved provinces, there was always one constant – their Friday afternoon calls.
And then Lady Fate played her hand once again. Jenkin accidentally rescued Venediger’s lost dog, and he accidentally moved into her dream house.
“I had walked into it once, long before, and instantly knew I would live there. When he called to tell me his new address, I swore at him, because he was messing with my plans,” she joked.
After both their separations, the couple decided to house share; it was the logical next step in their relationship. And yet, romance wasn’t a featured attraction for these two.
Their special moment occurred at the airport years later. Jenkin affectionately compared it to a scene from romantic comedy Love Actually.
“That stuff about airport arrivals gates is real. As I saw him round the corner and walked towards the children, I realised that I wasn't just looking at one of my best friends. I had fallen in love, and so had he,” she said.
For Venediger, it was exactly the same feeling. “I still remember walking into the airport arrival section and seeing Cath and her daughter standing right at the front,” he said.
“Cath's daughter had made a beautiful sign and was holding it up. It was in this moment that I realised Cath was not just my friend and close confidante, but that she was the one I wanted to build a life with – an authentic, warm life, filled with laughter and love. That was one of the best moments of my life.”
When saying their vows during their wedding ceremony, Jenkin mentioned the significance of the number 2. When asked to elaborate, she said: “Two is our number in so many ways, from our address, to dates, to so much more.
“It is a theme number for our life. Two children, two of us… I'm just trying to see if I can up the quotient of dogs in our home to four, so we have two sets of two,” she laughed.
For some of us, numerology could be seen as some form of pseudoscience, but if you really concentrate on the numbers like Jenkin and Venediger do, there are patterns that cannot be ignored.
Congratulations to our Managing Editor @cathjenkin and Head of Mining Community @lukevenediger
— Global Crypto (@GlobalCryptoTV) February 22, 2022
who tie the knot at the most auspicious of times, 2:22pm, 22/02/22!
We'll give you the day off, you two. 😉
Here's to an extraordinary life! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/cE1IGui9DW
Markovsky used the example of best-selling book The Bible Code. The author, Michael Drosnin, took the Old Testament and arranged it into a grid of text, he explained.
“A computer algorithm highlighted skip patterns to produce a huge database of letter strings. These were then sifted by another algorithm that searched for words and phrases, and distances between them.
“The method seemed to foretell many historical events, including the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995: a particular skip pattern yielded his name near the phrase ’assassin that will assassinate’,” he wrote.
Coincidence? Maybe not, just like a series of numbers brought Cath Jenkin and Luke Venediger together in holy matrimony.