: Would it be wise to make the turning point of a story coincidental? I've written a fictional story and the way my characters are coming together and forming a bond seems way too coincidental

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You already got two really good answers, i.e. make it part of a well thought through backstory and make it so the reader really just doesn't care how they got there.

I would like to add that if the only thing you are trying to accomplish is for the guy and gall to meet and fall for each other, that can be much simpeler.
If the girl is on her way to meet the lady, she could meet the tennant anyway regardless of where the lady is. They could bond over some shared interest, which is also very realistic as that is how it usually goes.
The child could just be the backdrop, or an allusion to future events your guy and girl become parents. The scene where the girl takes care of the child and the guy definately falls for her could take place at some later time.

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@SF . wrote a pretty good answer which will certainly help in more situations than just this one.

So here's a few small reworks for this particular situation, reducing the amount of coincidences:

The lady left because of a medical emergency. She left her child in the care of her tenant, whom she trusts. He takes the child to a nearby playground.
The girl does need to see the lady urgently. She is told she can wait with the tenant, but when she arrives he isn't there. She waits outside.
A short while later, the tenant and the child return and meet the waiting girl. He is initially reluctant to let a stranger in, she even says she's fine waiting outside, but the child immediately likes the girl and this convinces them both to go inside together.

The child doesn't really need to be sick, it just needs to create the initial bridge between these two people. Unless you really need the medical aspect, the tenant could just as easily become smitten with her as she reads the child a story, maybe one she invents on the spot.

The real point is that they should bond over the child, even though it is not their own.

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There's a rule... I can't recall the name, but it's a fairly common rule.

Essentially, the more accidental your reveal is, the more build-up you need not to make it a cheap deus ex machina.

To give an example, Tom Clancy's "Sum of all fears". A nuclear submarine crashes into a huge tree trunk in the middle of the ocean, suffering major damage right when a nuclear crisis is approaching its peak, and the accident serves as a major turning point. How the heck does a nuclear submarine crash into a big tree trunk in the middle of the ocean?

Well, first we start a thousand years ago as the tree seed started to grow... then, throughout several chapters we encounter lumberjacks, transport crew, the whole endeavor of bringing the enormous tree to Japan where it's to be used for a temple. We are presented with a slice of life of a less-than-competent sailor failing to attach it, then the ship in the storm, and the tree breaking free.

Another plotline through many chapters tells of the tribulations of the submarine crew, a competent captain displaced by ambitious, self-important moron through some back-scene games, and said moron making stupid errors and being a pushover, demoralizing the crew.

After so many chapters, when a stupid maneuver ordered by the captain crashes the submarine into the trunk, it comes as a perfectly acceptable incident, with all its elements explained. If anything, the consequences of the lengthy build-up seem rushed, the incident not playing a major role in the whole plot - but the long set-up made it completely acceptable!

Same here. Give a thread of build-up of the emergency situation which will demand the lady's attention, some politics and incompetence that lead up to her needing to be there and then. Give the kids a thread that builds up to the food poisoning, say, the kids challenging each other to eat some worms or something else they really shouldn't.

With proper build-up, any coincidences, even not very plausible, will be completely OK. Without that - the writing becomes cheap, a soap opera with little depth and deus ex machina contrivances.

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