It's Never Meant to End Like This?

I read this story above on Australia's ABC news website this morning written by an ABC journalist who is a passenger on a cruise ship where some of the passengers made one of the worst "Sliding Doors" decisions of their lives ... while others through luck or financial circumstances made one of their best.

Released May the 1st? May Day?

Waiting still on board for news of the missing passengers (presumed dead) the ABC journalist wrote -

"By nightfall, a magical holiday had been cut short by shock and grief for some, or an anxious wait for news of their loved ones caught up in a fatal volcanic eruption.
It's surreal.

I've been a journo for a long time and am married to one.

We know horrible, tragic and freak things happen, but this is so incongruous.
Families and young people were having the time of their lives, making memories.
It's never meant to end like this."

But does life ever end the way "it's supposed to end"?

Consider the Titanic and the Lobster Chowder?

More than 20 listed as missing after
White Island volcanic eruption

Were reported missing ... now safe

The World Clock — Worldwide

There is a three-hour time difference between my hometown of Brisbane and New Zealand at the moment, so when the volcano erupted at 2:11pm it was 11:11am in Brisbane.
Some people believe that the 11:11 time-prompt phenomena is the angels telling you to wake up.

And while I didn't get that creepy look at the clock to see that it is 11:11 moment yesterday, it didn't take me long to work out that it was 11:11am in Brisbane on Monday morning when a lot of lives were changed at 2:11pm in New Zealand and around the world that day.

So, is life just a series of random events, or are we at the mercy of the gods/God and our stars?
Or somewhere in-between?

Wednesday?

Monday?

Having just written a post about watching the TV show 'American Gods', I couldn't help thinking about life's supposedly random events and what people like to believe about them.
Especially seeing that the 'Ovation on the Seas' cruise ship left Sydney on a Wednesday and that the volcano erupted on a Monday -
American Gods and 9/11?

Yesterday just happened to be 9/12 too, in a darkly ironic way with the way we Aussies and Kiwis write our dates.
I guess life only seems surreal when you aren't really paying attention to the weird stuff in life that is always going on around you, until you look up from the cocktail in front of your face to see just how strange it really is.
At those times even the atheists among the crowd are heard to let out a cry of OMG in disbelief.
There is nothing more surreal as the day that you die ... or at least nearly do.
And if that doesn't make you wonder what life is all about, I guess nothing will.

Neil Gaiman and 'Good Omens'?