Lucky in love

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This article was published 14/02/2022 (1667 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Serendipity — it’s the stuff of films. Or is it?

The word, meaning a development of events, by chance, which leads to a happy ending, is derived from an ancient Persian fairy tale told of the three princes of Serendip — an old Persian name for the island of Sri Lanka — who had a habit of making unexpected discoveries.

There have been many portrayals of serendipity in film — the most famous being the 2001 movie plotting the 10-year romance between Jonathan and Sara, played by John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale respectively.

But how often does this happen in real life?

How many couples have been brought together by this bit of magic?

Tracey Bercier does not believe in fate — but she can’t deny that there’s something quite serendipitous about her life.

On Aug. 20, 1967, in her house on Templeton at the end of Salter Street, Bercier’s mother had risen late.

Norma Bercier and her husband Neil Lanyon, both 18, had been to a wedding social the night before and the heavily pregnant mom-to-be was still tired as she made her way to the bathroom.

A few moments later she called out for her husband in alarm; something was wrong.

Lanyon took a look. “I can see the head,” he yelled, rushing off to call an ambulance.

The baby, due in September, was well on her way.

Enter ambulance attendant Jacob Eyer.

Eyer had held many different jobs but this particular one had proved the most exciting; just seven days before, he had successfully delivered a baby on the Salter Street Bridge.

Now here he was again, with another pregnant woman, speeding down the very same bridge.

What were the chances of another unexpected delivery?

Pretty high, as it turns out — there was a yell to pull over and once again Eyer did the honours, handing a newborn Tracey to her proud parents.

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“My father always talked about the bump on the bridge,” Anton Eyer recalls, 54 years later.

“ ‘It’s all because of the one bump in the road and automatically when we hit that bump we pull over, it’s time’,” Eyer continues, mimicking his late father’s thick Dutch accent, while his wife Tracey — yes, that Tracey — putters around in the background.

The couple, who have both been previously married, met 30 years ago at a work Christmas party. Bercier had attended as the guest of her now ex-husband.

“This is going to sound scandalous,” Bercier says, laughing, “but the first time I met Anton I remember thinking he had a nice ass. But I was married at the time and so was he and I never thought anything more of it.”

A chance phone call from Eyer, after Bercier’s marriage had ended, led to a number of movie dates and three months later they decided to make a go of it.

One night, after a few months of living together, they were watching an episode of medical drama ER when Eyer remarked his father had worked in the medical field.

At this point Bercier laughingly said, “Yes, I know your dad did everything,” which led to Eyer calling his dad for confirmation.

“I was sitting beside Anton and I could hear his dad say something about delivering two babies on Salter Street Bridge,” Bercier recalls.

“When I heard that I took the phone and asked if he remembered where he picked the women up. When he confirmed that one was at the end of Salter I was shocked, because of course that was me.”

Bercier’s mother Norma, now 73, was taken aback when her daughter told her about the remarkable chain of events.

“She said, ‘Am I going to have to see him again? I don’t know how I feel about this,’” Bercier says.

“I had heard the Salter Street story,” Anton interjects, “but I didn’t know it was my father who delivered Tracey.”

“I can still remember what he said to me that day, when he found out,” Bercier continues. “He told me ‘My dad was the first person to hold you and I will be the last.’”

The now-grandparents — they have a six-year-old granddaughter, Lily — married in 1999, in the backyard of the house they live in, and will celebrate 23 years of marriage this July.

But even something as ordinary as a house on a Winnipeg street is still significant to Bercier.

“I’m back on Salter now,” she says. “When I met my Anton he had already bought this house and we’ve been living here since 1993.

“I was born on Salter Street and I will die on Salter Street,” she says.

That sunny August morning when Jacob Eyer set off to work may have started like any other — but look at where it’s ended up.

Was it a twist of fate that brought his son into the life of the child he delivered 55 years ago, or was it mere coincidence?

We may never know, but it sure is romantic, serendipitous, even.

Twitter: @nuchablue