There are two types of twins. Identical twins are formed when one, already fertilized egg cell divides into two identical parts and each part further develops independently. Then two children are born who are of the same sex and have identical genetic material. Identical twins are formed from two separate, individually fertilized eggs. They can be of the same or different sex, and their genetic material is as similar as that of any pair of siblings.
For two couples in Canada, the power of DNA to influence behavior is much more than an academic question. Since 2000, they have been raising two sisters, identical twins, 440 kilometers apart, in a kind of random scientific experiment.
Lynette and Mike Shaw met Alison and Kirk McLeod at the same adoption agency. The Shaws live in Amherstburg, a rural community near Windsor, Ontario, and the McLeods live in Sutton, a suburb near Toronto. In February 2000, they traveled together to Chengzhou, a city in the Chinese province of Hunan, with a small group of potential parents. As soon as they saw the babies they were going to adopt, they immediately noticed that they were twins. "When they took them down the elevator, we looked at our daughter and the other baby and I thought, 'Oh, they're exactly the same,'" Mike says. "They even cried the same thing. And they laughed the same way. You really couldn't tell one apart," Lynette recalls.
Before going to China, the couples saw photos of babies who were six months old at the time and wondered if they might be sisters. However, the representatives of the orphanage told them that the babies were not related, although he wrote the same date of birth in the card. In any case, they were told that babies could not be adopted together in the same family. If the Shaws and McLeods had not adopted them, the babies would have been returned to the orphanage and given to other families for adoption. Under such circumstances, the couples feared that the girls might be separated forever. So they took them and took them home to Canada, determined to do what was best, even if they raised identical twin sisters separately.
“The shows are like family to us now,” Kirk says. "We try to see each other as often as we can."
The McLeods drive four hours to Amherstburg or the Shaws travel to Saton every six to eight weeks. As soon as the McLeod car stops in front of the Shaw house, Lily jumps out of the back seat and rushes into the arms of her sister Jillian. They are now 12 years old, both have an honest facial expression and black shoulder-length hair, the only thing is that Jillian has recently been wearing a denture. “They’re sisters all the way through,” Lynette says, looking at them. "They're like an egg to an egg."
The Shaws and McLeods are aware of how rare their situation is. There are only a few more cases, also with children adopted in Asia, where the twins are consciously raised separately. Their daughters, it seems, accept that as something normal.
“I don’t mind, nor am I happy,” Lily says. "The only thing is that sometimes, if we lived closer, we could sleep with each other."
“Yeah, that would be great,” Jillian agrees.
Since they remained in close contact, the parents together closely followed every step in the development of the twins. For example, both girls made their first steps on the same day, at the age of 14 months - one in Sutton, the other in Amherstburg. Both had holes in their teeth and amblyopia in one eye, the so-called lazy eye. And both, as soon as they walked, were lively and active.
"Even when she was two years old, Jillian played hockey with older children," says Mike. "Sometimes she would make them cry."
As they grew up, Lily seemed to be more of an artist and Jillian a sports type, probably influenced by the Shaw's other children, Heather and Eric, who were both athletes. "But then Lily joined a local athletics club and won the 100-meter dash," says Kirk. "And then I realized how much stronger genes are than upbringing."
Josh, Jeremy, Brittany and Briana first met at the Twins Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio, 2018. Less than a year later, Josh and Jeremy proposed to the sisters at Twin Lakes State Park in Virginia. Not surprisingly, their wedding was themed with the title ‘Twice Upon a Time’, and they were married by priests who are also idetic twins. And that's not the end of the coincidences, because four months ago, both couples announced together that they were expecting their first child.
Although the coronavirus pandemic did not bring anything nice to most people, young parents from Raipur in central India decided to name their twins born during the pandemic Corona and Covid.
Source and photos
Google.com
Mother Preti Verma (27) told the Hindustan Times that they chose the names to remind them of the difficult circumstances in which they had two healthy children.
It's stories like these that make me remember that reality is stranger than fiction sometimes. Stories involving twins are always interesting though, they're like the same person, but with small differences.