How would you interpret this phrase? How would you interpret this phrase ‘As so often happens in life’ in the last sentence? I think the ‘life’ in the phrase refers to anyone’s life, instead of the father’s life. What do you think? Thanks. And it’s taken from The Egg by Sherwood Anderson. the context: It was father's idea that both he and mother should try to entertain the people who came to eat at our restaurant… Father became a little feverish in his anxiety to please. There was no doubt lurking somewhere in him a touch of the spirit of the showman… For a long time father, whom Joe Kane had never seen before, remained silently gazing at his visitor. He was no doubt suffering from an attack of stage fright. As so often happens in life he had thought so much and so often of the situation that now confronted him that he was somewhat nervous in its presence.