What Are The Chances?

San Diego is a city of 1.4 million inhabitants.  It's an urban metropolis composed of numerous neighborhoods, half a dozen large hospitals, three universities, a complex bus-and-trolley system, and a network of freeways.  It's a huge city.  I grew up there, and I knew that if your friends moved across town, it was possible you'd never see them again, let alone run into them while you were out and about.  If you want to see your friends or family, you have to go find them.

My cousin K-- was taking her father, my uncle Bud, to the doctor for his leg yesterday, and they ran into his sister.  Aunt S -- was at that hospital visiting Aunt M --, mother of my not-crazy cousin D --.  So now the entire family knows about how bad things are for Aunt M -- except my dad.

What are the chances of that?  You want to keep a family drama quiet until you know something of substance to tell everybody, and the exact people that you don't want to have find out about it come strolling into the hospital and run into one of the key players.  In a city of one and a half million people, what are the chances of that happening?

Do I call Dad and tell him?  Do I let my cousin and her dad tell my dad?  They don't know I knew about this days ago, but now I think my hand is forced.

I was a teenager in this town.  Does anybody wonder why I knew, I knew that I could not get away with anything (even if I had wanted to)?  I knew that although the odds were against discovery, in the case of my family, the outcome would be certain.

Edited to add on March 2...

Everyone in the family commented on how crazy it was for family members to walk into the same hospital at the same time.  I ended up calling Dad and giving him a "light" version of what was going on with his older sister, and I'm glad I did.  Aunt M -- died the next day, so I had the sad duty of telling him that she didn't make it out of her illness.  Because we all knew it was going on, it was quick work to pass the word around and let everybody know.  I'll just call this a "simple gift" and say "thanks."