Two women, living a couple dozen miles away from each other in Vermont, both lost a child in the last decade. Both children, oddly enough, were named Sam F. And both have mothers now connected through an inadvertent phone call....




....Peggy said people have suggested she go to support groups for grieving parents. She tried, but it didn't help, she said.

But a chance connection with another grieving mother, one who lost a child so much like her own, Peggy said that felt good.

"We pretend a lot that we're happy," she said. “But in actuality, you've always got that loss, that empty feeling. And she knows, you know?”

Back in Leicester, Kris said the randomness of the connection still amazes her. She was so worried when she got the first text message, she said, thinking she and her entire family would have to finally delete Sam's number from their phones, closing yet another door to his life.

"It could have been a truly painful experience," Kris said. "Instead, it is just one that makes me smile to think about it. It was a gift to all of us."