![]() ![]() I tease her that she doesn't want to be my identical twin. Perhaps he didn't keep accurate track of the number of placentas? She finds this theory interesting, but no. Also, there was that detail of the doctor delivering a baby boy next door between us. I remind her that our birth story is harrowing as she was delivered first, because I was breech and had the umbilical cord around my neck. In one of our recent daily calls, I asked Sarah why when the DNA tests showed we are identical, she still says we aren't. My sister still says we are not identical ![]() Even when facts revealed the story's inaccuracy, my mother wasn't giving it up. I always raised you to be individuals." The story of our being fraternal had become family lore. ![]() Our mother dismissed the discussion and the test results, saying, "Well, I don't care what they say. We wondered how knowing this information from the start would have changed us. Shortly after we received the news from the twin study, Sarah and I were in my kitchen talking with our mother. "Idiots!" we'd think.Īnother typical question we get is, "Did you ever switch places?" Surely, their thinking goes, in all those years of Catholic school, wearing the same uniform, you'd only have had to switch name tags. When Sarah and I were born, our mother was told that since there were two separate placentas, we were fraternal twins. Basically, siblings born at the same time. And this is the story we told over the years again and again when we endured staring and comparing from those who insisted we were identical. We were adamant that we were not.Īs kids, we'd be walking in the neighborhood, and people would call out from across the street, "Doublemint! Doublemint!" in reference to a popular gum commercial featuring female twins. I may have said something profound like, "Well, there ya go. Three weeks later, I received their letter, and I immediately called my sister. We swabbed the inside of our cheeks with oversized Q-tips and sent our genetic material through the mail. We were asked to verify our twin status by taking DNA tests. My twin sister Sarah signed us up for a twin study, our contribution to science. Apparently, upon meeting anyone, I should say, "Hi, I'm Susan, and I'm a twin." The next question is always, are you identical? For 35 years, I'd say no. When acquaintances discover I'm a twin, often they are offended that I've kept this essential information from them - that I'm only half of a whole. Initially, they were drawings Wrigley included in magazine and newspaper advertisements. The company loved to capitalize on the word double and introduced the Doublemint twins in 1939. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. They’re famous for their peppermint gum, advertised for its double flavor introduced in 1914. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |