See the beautiful then and now pics of twins who simply turned 100 – NBC New York
Wilma Cagle and Welthy Senn, similar twins who turned 100 in November, start every day collectively in the identical home in Greenville, South Carolina. They gown alike, eat each meal with undiminished enthusiasm, and spend time sitting of their light-filled solar porch.
Between them, they raised eight youngsters — Wilma has three, Welthy 5 — who now share accountability for his or her care. Most reside close by, rotating visits and overseeing a each day schedule of caregiving.
Other than remedy to manage blood strain, neither sister takes each day prescriptions. Each have dementia that primarily impacts long-term reminiscence, so Welthy’s daughter, Rebecca Hamby, spoke to TODAY.com about her mom and aunt’s century-long bond and what it seems to be like now.
“They don’t keep in mind a lot past the current,” Hamby, 76, tells TODAY, “however they at all times know the place the opposite one is.”
That intuition usually reveals itself at evening. Welthy and Wilma share a single bed room, sleeping in separate beds positioned just a few ft aside. However they nonetheless typically find yourself in the identical mattress, a well-recognized ritual that has adopted them into previous age.
After Welthy’s husband died, leaving her widowed at 56, Hamby recalled, her mom would usually keep along with her twin. On multiple event, Wilma’s husband returned to the bed room to seek out his spouse and her sister already asleep collectively. Amused, he merely went to seek out one other mattress.
For Welthy and Wilma, Hamby mentioned, the association required no rationalization. Their spouses, who had been roommates at Clemson College, understood that the twins had been one another’s deepest consolation.
That attachment continues to form their days. A few 12 months in the past, Hamby mentioned, Wilma’s daughter deliberate to take her to a live performance, an outing Welthy was not capable of be part of. However on the day of the efficiency, Hamby discovered the sisters settled in collectively, unconcerned with the schedule of the afternoon.
“I by no means mentioned I might go anyplace with out my sister,” Wilma instructed her.
“That’s simply how they’re,” Hamby explains. “They wish to be collectively, and it has at all times been that approach. They’d an older sister, and it was laborious for her, as a result of so long as the twins had one another, that was all that mattered.”
If one sister falls sick, Hamby mentioned, the opposite turns into visibly distressed, hovering close by and asking after her. Although they don’t discuss shedding one another, Hamby mentioned they usually discuss how blessed they really feel to nonetheless be collectively.
Hamby feels that when one sister goes, the opposite won’t be far behind.
“I actually strongly imagine that they’ve stored one another alive,” Hamby says. “I don’t suppose one could be dwelling with out the opposite.”
At their one centesimal birthday celebration in November, greater than 140 family members gathered to honor them. And whereas some issues have modified — as soon as outgoing, Welthy is now the quieter sister — different issues haven’t: they’re nonetheless most proud to be similar twins, by no means aside.
A 2016 research from the College of Washington discovered that similar twins are inclined to reside longer than each fraternal twins and the final inhabitants, a profit researchers say comes from having somebody shut searching for you.
For Wilma and Welthy, that analysis hits near residence.
“The bond they share is actually indescribable,” Hamby says.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. Extra from TODAY:
