Hi, my name is Federica from Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. I am Italian and come from Lake Como. I always assumed that I was the only one in the LKS Yorkshire and Humber community. I was wrong.

Last year I received an email from Massimiliano (Max) Santalucia from York Teaching Hospitals requesting a book from our collection and after spotting his Italian surname we found out that we both used to live in the same area of Lake Como.
At that point I started thinking about the causes of this bizarre coincidence.
Then Max explained that his dad spent many years teaching at the local secondary school and he used to play football with teachers from that school.
My heart jumped as I realised that not only had I found an Italian library colleague in the region, I had also found MY teacher’s son.
Max was surprised too when I revealed to him my past as his dad’s student. Later that day I mentioned this to my mum in Italy who was shocked too. Our parents then met in a local shopping centre but this is another story.
The world is really small.
I eventually met Max in person at Manchester Airport, both taking the same plane to get back to Italy for Christmas last year. No more coincidence, our seats were far away from each other.
Just a couple of weeks ago we met at a training day and discussed writing this short story. We both enjoy working in the healthcare library sector as it’s something that does not exist in Italy. But this is another story too.
Coming back to the main plot you must admit that the chances of a story like this are really low.
There must be something in the water… of Lake Como.

Federica Bianchini
Library Lead
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Max Santalucia
Library Assistant
York Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust