Whether identical or fraternal, twins are rare and still fascinate

Like all things somewhat rare, twins have long captured our imaginations. They appear in myth, legend, lore and in modern popular culture — Romulus and Remus, Jenna and Barbara, Mary-Kate and Ashley, to name but a few.

Human twins occur in about 33 of every 1,000 births, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s nothing compared to the nine-banded armadillo, a Texas icon that produces identical offspring 100 percent of the time, although always quadruplets.

Primate twins made major news in Galveston in 2016 with births at the Moody Gardens Rainforest Pyramid. Twin pygmy slow lorises, described as “tiny caramel-colored fuzzballs with huge shoe-button eyes,” were born to Cai and Roach, rare members of a vulnerable Southeast Asian primate species. The birth of one would have been news. The birth of two at one time was a major event.

Twins were the inspiration for one of Texas history’s enduring mysteries, the final resting place of two cannons, the “Twin Sisters,” fired in the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836 and again in the Civil War Battle of Galveston against Yankee gunboats. The cannons were reportedly named for actual twin girls who accompanied their father when the cannons, a gift from the people of Cincinnati, were delivered to the island by steamship.

There are the well-known Foreman twins — Armanti and D’Onta — who are from Texas City and each made names for themselves in football, with D’Onta going on to play for the Houston Texans and Armanti previously with the Minnesota Vikings, but who is a free agent now.

Then there are the famous identical twin astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly. In 2013, Scott Kelly was in space on a year-long mission aboard the International Space Station, while his twin brother remained on Earth to act as an experimental control, according to reports. Researchers wanted to compare any genetic changes that occurred while Scott was space.

Other notable local twins include the Chapoton brothers, O. Donald and John “Buck,” identical twins who in 2006 famously sold their 1,050-acre ranch, one of the largest undeveloped tracts on the Texas coast for $33 million, marking the largest single land deal in Galveston history. The Chapotons were both Texas attorneys who headed Washington offices of major Texas law firms and caused some confusion in D.C. when each of them served, at different times, as deputy assistant secretary for tax policy under President Ronald Reagan.

In medical terminology, twins fall into the category of multiples — births in which one egg is fertilized and split into two identical zygotes in utero, or two eggs are fertilized separately and grow simultaneously to produce fraternal twins.

One Galvestonian, Helen Kirk Lauve, became one of the nation’s recognized experts on multiples, including twins, based on a lifetime of collecting birth records and memorabilia of multiples after the birth of the famous Badgett quadruplets on the island in 1939.

Lauve, then Helen Kirk, was a medical assistant to the doctor who delivered the quadruplets and knew them from the very beginning, eventually becoming the family’s spokesperson to the media and a champion of sisters Joan, Joyce, Jeraldine and Jeanette. The sisters’ mother was a twin and their father had twin brothers.

Over the years, Lauve developed a collection of multiple birth ephemera that filled five rooms in her home. A Texas Monthly story published in 1997 described her as the “Smithsonian of multiple births,” according to The Daily News, and a “maven of multiples,” according to Smithsonian magazine.

Lauve was 81 when the Texas Monthly story came out, and reported that in earlier years she often traveled to see new babies and sent birthday cards — as many as 500 a year — to multiples around the country. In her 80s, she still attended conventions of organizations like Texas Mothers of Multiples, the International Twins Association, the National Organization of Mothers of Twins and various twin clubs.

“It’s fascinating to be sitting across the table from two 80-year-old twins and see that all their movements are just alike — even if they haven’t been together all their lives,” Lauve told Texas Monthly, tapping into a twin fascination that many people share.

Dancie Ware, the mother of twins born in Galveston and who are featured in this issue, remembers receiving a card from Lauve when her babies were born, she said. Ware also recalled a Houston Chronicle Sunday magazine spread published “sometime in the 1950s or ’60s” about eight sets of twins that all lived in Galveston within blocks of each other, presented to her by friends at her twin baby shower.

Twins capture our imaginations. We want to know what it’s like to be one. Double trouble, double pleasure or both? So, Coast Monthly decided to track down some twins in these parts to get to know them a little better.

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Sabrina and Rebecca Rodriguez

Twins Rebecca and Sabrina Rodriguez grew up in Hitchcock and La Marque, and now live in League City, where they work at Logan’s Roadhouse. Sabrina is a server and Rebecca is a bartender. But Rebecca sees herself becoming a successful business owner. And Sabrina intends to work in a field where she can help others, she said.

Both love living on the upper Texas coast, they said.

“We’ve lived here all our lives and have always enjoyed it,” Rebecca said. “For fun, we love to go to the beach and take pictures. We like to go on runs along the seawall or at the park. We love being outdoors and having a good time.”

– Story by Coast Monthly staff

Age: 19 (Sabrina is older by 30 minutes)

Place of birth: University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston

Where do they live now? We both live in League City together, just the two of us.

Fraternal or identical? Fraternal

Do you have twin telepathy?

We don’t really have twin telepathy, as in we can’t read each other’s mind at random times, but we do feel each other’s emotions and we always know how each other feels.

What do you love about being a twin?

We love being twins because we always have each other no matter what, we know that we will never be alone and we will never be friendless because we are each other’s best friend. We also love that we can share everything as in clothing and shoes.

What don’t you love about being a twin?

Growing up we always had to share everything and we did not like that. Now that we’re older, we don’t mind sharing. One thing we don’t like now that we are older is that we are so emotionally connected and invested in each other, that if one of us is having a bad day, the other one is automatically having a bad day, too, and our moods affect each other.

Have you ever dressed alike?

Growing up, we always dressed in either the same outfits or the same outfit, just a different color.

Are you competitive with each other?

We are competitive in some ways, but for the most part, we always root for each other and do not care if one beats the other.

Did you ever try to pretend to be your twin?

One time, we changed outfits and did each other’s hair to look like each other because we were going to take each other’s test because we both needed help in each other’s class. The last minute we got afraid and didn’t go through with the plan.

What are you better at than your twin?

Sabrina: I’m better at managing money and listening to others.

Rebecca: I’m better at talking to people and making others laugh.

What do you like most about your twin?

Sabrina: I love that my sister can talk to anyone and can have a conversation about anything.

Rebecca: I love that Sabrina is so caring and she cares a lot about me. I love that she can always make me smile when I’m sad and always supports everything I do.

How do people tell you apart?

Sabrina has short hair and has a beauty mark on her face and
Rebecca has long hair.

Is there an evil twin?

No, there is no evil twin.

What do you argue about?

Since we live together, just the two of us, we argue about things like who’s going to do the dishes that night or about what we’re going to wear because we don’t like to share clothes.

If you had twins, what would you do differently than your parents?

If we had twins, we would definitely raise them to be just as close as we are, but one thing we would do differently is not make them share everything because that always made us feel like one person, especially when we had to share a phone.

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John-Austin and Barrett Gaertner

Barrett and John-Austin Gaertner were born on Galveston Island and have been together ever since. Both twins participated in speech and debate and both love to sail.

The twins took all their middle school classes together, so when they reached high school, they were happy for some independence, they said.

“As a coincidence, we both have every single class together the first year of high school,” John-Austin said.

Now, both freshmen attend Texas A&M University at College Station. John-Austin studies business management, while Barrett studies engineering. Barrett hopes to move out of state after graduating, but John-Austin knows he’ll want to return to Galveston some day, he said.

– Story by Keri Heath

Age: 19 (John-Austin is older)

Place of birth: Galveston Island

Where do you live now?

College Station at Texas A&M University

Fraternal or identical? Identical

Do you have twin telepathy?

John-Austin: One time, we agreed to convince people that we can read each other’s minds.

Barrett: More than one time.

John-Austin: We just made up four predetermined words and we would say ‘I’m going to whisper a word to you and he’s going to say the word that I’m thinking of.’ But we already knew what the words were. People actually fell for that.

What do you love about being a twin?

John-Austin: We always get each other’s references. Because we’ve been around each other so long, we can always tell where the other one is going.

Barrett: We’re always on the same page. We did dual improv at a tournament for speech and debate and we got first place in the whole tournament. There was no way to compete with us.

What don’t you love about being a twin?

John-Austin: You always have someone there who would just love to mess with you. And people always associate you with each other. It is kind of annoying that people associate you with each other.

Barrett: Everyone was always very interested in our class ranks.

Have you ever dressed alike?

John-Austin: I think that people in the business school generally dress better than people in the engineering school.

Barrett: I remember one time freshman year of high school, we just happened to wear the exact same outfit.

John-Austin: We didn’t intentionally, but our parents did sometimes force us to wear the same outfits.

Barrett: Bumble bee costumes, Halloween costumes.

John-Austin: We were forced to dress the same going to church when we were little.

Are you competitive with each other?

Barrett: No, just jokingly.

John-Austin: We totally get competitive.

Barrett: Whoever got the better grade will make fun of the other for getting a worse grade. On the SAT, John-Austin got a worse grade.

John-Austin: In elementary and middle school, I tended to get slightly better grades than Barrett. In high school, I got involved in slightly more extracurriculars than he did but I got slightly worse grades.

Barrett: When I mentioned that I got a better SAT score than him, it was by like 10 points.

Did you ever try to pretend to be your twin?

Barrett: I did that once, actually. I pretended to be (John-Austin) because I didn’t want to talk to someone that I did know. They were like ‘hi Barrett’ and I was like ‘no, I have a twin.’

John-Austin: At Thanksgiving one year, we traded clothes with each other in the middle of dinner while family was over.

What are you better at than your twin?

Barrett: I’m better at psychology and I guess I was better at school work in high school, I don’t know if that’s still true in college.

John-Austin: Obviously, he’d be better at programming because I’ve never done any programming. I’d be better in the medical field because I have more experience there.

What do you like most about your twin?

John-Austin: I like that he’s shorter than me.

Barrett: I like that he takes the sacrifice of having a really ugly, ratty beard so people can tell us apart.

John-Austin: I like that we are both smart and can talk to each other, can discuss things with each other, just about current events for example.

Barrett: It’s nice having someone who is smart that you can talk to consistently. Being able to grow up with that is a good thing as well. Over time, it’s probably given us more experience.

If you had twins, what would you do differently than your parents?

John-Austin: I’d probably let them have their own rooms at some point.

Barrett: Oh yeah, that’d be nice. The reason that I wanted to move out was that he would get up in the middle of the night always and be incredibly loud. You were intentionally trying to drive me out of this room to make it impossible to go to sleep at any time before 1 in the morning.

John-Austin: You seriously still believe that?

Barrett: In elementary and middle school, we were all in the same extracurriculars. But that’s not something you can’t really do that differently because you can’t conveniently manage two people’s extracurriculars.

John-Austin: As soon as I was able to drive, I joined like seven different extracurricular activities.

How do people tell you apart?

John-Austin: Well, I have a beard.

Is there an evil twin?

John-Austin: We were in geometry class in ninth grade and there was a substitute teacher that we’d had pretty consistently. The substitute teacher at the end of the year said, “So I’ve been wondering the entire year, which one of you is the evil twin?” Barrett goes, “Oh, he’s the evil twin, definitely” and everyone else in the class goes “No, Barrett’s the evil twin.”

Barrett: I don’t know about that.

John-Austin: You are generally more crass. I don’t think we have an evil twin, but I would say that Barrett has been more regarded as such.

Barrett: I would say that that’s more due to your social engineering.

John-Austin: Most people would call him the evil twin, but we’re both pretty nice. But I’m a little nicer.

What do you argue about?

John-Austin: Politics, but we can always talk about it.

Barrett: I’m pushing his politics further toward mine every day.

John-Austin: We don’t see eye to eye on some things but, at this point, we can talk about it pretty easily. We don’t have any problems discussing something if we disagree.

Barrett: The only problem is, sometimes he’ll jump in and out of being serious.

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Darla Hillman and Debbie McLawchlin

“It’s like we’re just half a person, but when we come together, we are one.”

Darla Hillman and Debbie McLawchlin — known as the Heckendorn twins — called themselves “we-ins” when they were babies. They grew up in Hitchcock, along with two brothers, and moved to Dickinson when they were in the ninth grade, graduating from Dickinson High School in 1969.

As mirror twins, their childhood was idyllic, with loving parents who nurtured them and allowed them to be themselves.

So, is there a difference between mirror twins and identical twins?

“Yes,” McLawchlin said. “Mirror-image twinning occurs when the egg splits later, nine to 12 days post-conception, where with identical twins, the separation occurs much earlier.”

When the split occurs late, the twins develop reverse asymmetric features.

“When we were babies, if Darla picked up something with her right hand, I picked it up with my left. It was like we were looking in mirrors. That’s why we have different dominant hands.”

They loved being together and carried that closeness into adulthood, they said. Darla graduated from the Alvin Police Academy in 1991 and went on to become a patrol officer for the Santa Fe Police Department in Santa Fe, Texas. She married Clifford Hillman in 1992, with Debbie as maid of honor, and in 1998 went to work at her husband’s family-owned business, Hillman Shrimp & Oyster Co. They have since sold the company and are enjoying retirement.

Debbie McLawchlin also worked at the Santa Fe Police Department as secretary to the chief of police — a job she truly loved, she said. She married Tommy McLawchlin in 1970 with Darla as her maid of honor. She worked with her sister at Hillman Shrimp & Oyster Co. for a while and she, like her sister, is happy to be in the retirement stage of her life.

Hillman has one son, two stepsons, and three granddaughters; McLawchlin has three daughters, five grandchildren and one great-grandson. None of the offspring are twins; however, a nephew is the father of identical twin boys. Both sisters are big Houston Astros fans and love to travel together.

– Story by Sue Mayfield Geiger

Age: 67 (Debbie is older by 19 minutes)

Place of birth: Heights Hospital; Houston

Where do you live now?

Darla: Dickinson

Debbie: Santa Fe

Fraternal or identical?

Darla: Identical mirror twins. I’m right-handed and near-sighted. My DNA showed that I could be Debbie and Debbie could be me.

Debbie: I’m left handed and far-sighted. My two daughters had their DNA done and it came back that they could be Darla’s daughters.

Do you have twin telepathy?

Darla: Yes. We had our own language as babies. We have shown up wearing the exact same outfit without consulting each other; we have even bought identical things when not together and we often have the same ideas for dinner.

Debbie: When we were young, if I wanted a drink, she wanted one, too.

What do you love about being a twin?

Darla: Having a best friend all of your life.

Debbie: I agree.

What don’t you love about being a twin?

Darla: It’s hard to do something without the other, because we’ve done so much together all our lives.

Debbie: Sometimes, people want to compare us too much. Also, we want to always do everything together and that doesn’t always work out.

Have you ever dressed alike?

Darla: Yes, and still do every chance we get. The older we’ve become, the more we love to dress alike.

Debbie: We went through a period in high school that we didn’t, but it didn’t last long.

Did you ever try to pretend to be your twin?

Darla: We switched classes in school and talked to each other’s boyfriends on the phone who could not tell the difference.

Debbie: That still happens with our spouses sometimes when we’re on the phone.

What are you better at than your twin?

Darla: Debbie was a tomboy and good at sports. I was more of the girly girl and good with numbers.

Debbie: I’m more of an organizer than Darla. And yes, I was good at sports and a real tomboy. When we went shopping for heels for a dance, I didn’t want them.

How do people tell you apart?

Darla: When we’re together, people can tell us apart, but when we’re separated, our friends often mistake us for the other. Someone will ask me about a family member and I know they think they’re talking to Debbie.

Debbie: Mama tried putting me on the left and Darla on the right, but she’d still get confused. If I run into someone who is a friend of Darla’s, she might see me and wonder why I’m not acknowledging her.

What do you argue about?

Darla: Our hair. Debbie refuses to go gray.

Debbie: Right, I refuse to go gray, so we use the same colorist.

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Morgan and Skylar Smith

In 2009, brothers and bandmates Morgan and Skylar Smith were 14-year-old students at Ball High School in Galveston when they formed the band Ocean Roots. A year later, they released their first album, Wind N’ Water. Now age 24, the Smiths are stoked about writing and recording new music in Austin where they work and perform.

“We’re putting together a new band and digging the Austin music scene,” Skylar said.

The brothers moved to Austin after studying Maritime Administration at Texas A&M University in Galveston and acquiring master captain’s licenses from the U.S. Coast Guard. They’ve recently been working boat recoveries after flooding in the Austin area.

Both their music and personal interests are reflections of their names. Mom and manager, Gillian Smith, said she named them for the wind and water.

“Skylar for the ‘air we breathe’ and Morgan means ‘by the sea.’”

Both men are long-time volunteers for Waves of Impact, a nonprofit group that teaches children with special needs to surf. They also are strong advocates for wetlands conservation.

The Smith brothers say fans can expect a new album, with original music written and arranged by them, followed by a nationwide tour in 2019. They recently purchased a 1974 Bluebird Wanderlodge from “King of the Hill” and “Beavis and Butt-head” creator Mike Judge. The Wanderlodge was used in Judge’s “Tales from the Tour Bus” series. The twins plan to use the bus for their own tour next year.

Their new music still has an “island groove, but it’s more soulful,” Skylar said. “Our music has matured and evolved as we have matured and evolved.”

You can download songs by Ocean Roots from iTunes and Spotify.

– Story by Esther Davis McKenna

Age: 24 (Morgan is older by 1 minute)

Place of birth: Galveston Island

Where they live now: Austin

Fraternal or identical? Fraternal

Do you have twin telepathy?

Morgan: Yes, definitely. But not exactly the way you’ve been made to believe twins telepathize. We don’t communicate in complete direct telepathic sentences, we catch each other’s vibes. It’s an inherent knowing of what the other is thinking. We’re often thinking about the same thing or song. We’ll randomly start whistling the same tune out of the blue. In our music or onstage, we don’t really need to speak to one another, everything just flows. Telepathy or predictability — one or both.

Skylar: Definitely, being so close to each other, we often think the same things. I can let Morgan know what I’m thinking with a glance or the raise of an eyebrow.

What do you love about being a twin?

Morgan: Having a built-in best friend/partner in crime. It’s nice to have someone that’s always there for you and that really knows you. We are each other’s personal life consultants.

Skylar: It’s nice having a built-in best friend that’s the same age as you and always there to help you.

What don’t you love about being a twin?

Morgan: Not being identical. Skylar could have taken my math classes for me.

Skylar: I can’t say there is anything I dislike about being a twin.

Have you ever dressed alike?

Morgan: Every day as kids. We’ve since developed individual styles, but still pretty similar. Telepathy example: We often wake up and get dressed only to realize we’re wearing the same thing. Quibbling over who has to change follows soon after.

Skylar: Yes, as babies we were always dressed alike in the raddest clothes. Sometimes, we’ll look at each other and we’re wearing the same color scheme or outfit. Now we’ll tell each other what we’re going to wear so we don’t dress alike. Maybe it’s the twin telepathy coming through as we get dressed in the morning.

Did you ever try to pretend to be your twin?

Morgan: Wish we could! Mischief would abound.

Skylar: No, we looked so different growing up, it wasn’t even worth trying.

What are you better at than your twin?

Morgan: We’re each good at our own specific interests, but our talents complement each other. Yin and yang, ebb and flow.

Skylar: We don’t always like the same things or activities, so this generally determines who is better at what.

If you had twins, what would you do differently than your parents?

Morgan: I wouldn’t change a thing about the way our mother raised us. We are blessed to have her.

Skylar: Twins and triplets run in our family, there isn’t anything I would change.

How do people tell you apart?

Morgan: I have blue eyes and Sky has brown eyes. Different heights. Slightly different hair colors/lengths. No one ever believes we’re twins.

Skylar: I think the easiest way to tell us apart is by the color of our hair and eyes, or height. I never understood how some people and teachers still got us confused even though we look like two different people.

Is there an evil twin?

Morgan: Yes. Me.

Skylar: Think that depends on who you ask at the moment. We’re always plotting our next evil plan.

What do you argue about?

Morgan: Where to eat.

Skylar: We get along pretty well and respect each other. But we do argue about minuscule stuff as anyone would when they spend too much time together.

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Sharon Thibodeaux and Shirley McDaniel

Sharon Thibodeaux and Shirley McDaniel, the youngest of five children by 10 years, grew up in Hitchcock, where they still live. Their high school classmates didn’t have much trouble telling them apart. Shirley was a star on the Hitchcock High School basketball team, while Sharon was a self-described “girly girl.”

The differences have continued into adulthood. Sharon is married, with a daughter, while Shirley is single. Sharon works in accounting at American National Insurance Co. in Galveston. Shirley works a security job at the University of Texas Medical Branch, also in Galveston.

Their differences haven’t driven them apart, however.

“We can talk about anything,” Shirley said. “When we grew up, it was just the two of us. We were just that type of family. It was just me and her.”

“I don’t know how other people feel, not being a twin,” Sharon said.

– Story by John Wayne Ferguson

Age: 54 (Shirley is older by 8 minutes)

Place of birth: John Sealy Hospital in Galveston

Fraternal or identical? Identical

Do you have twin telepathy?

When Sharon was pregnant, Shirley felt labor pains, she said.

“I was right there the whole time,” Shirley said.

What do you love about being a twin?

Shirley: Everyone gets us mixed up since we are older now.

Sharon: People looking, talking and whispering.

What don’t you love about being a twin?

Shirley: I am in so many organizations that people always get confused as to who is who, and Sharon doesn’t speak to people she doesn’t know. I’m in so much, I referee basketball, I substitute in the school district, so a lot of people know me. They see her places, too, and see her in the store and she doesn’t talk to them. Then they say to me “I said hi to you and you ignored me.”

Have you ever dressed alike?

Shirley: When we were kids.

Sharon: Yes, from kindergarten to middle school.

Are you competitive with each other?

Shirley: No, she has a strong willpower to do her own thing and so do I.

Sharon: No really, we pretty much do the same things.

Did you ever try to pretend to be your twin?

Shirley: No, she was the quiet one, and I am the outspoken one.

Sharon: No.

What are you better at than your twin?

Shirley: I really can’t say. There is no competition between us.

Sharon: Developing ideas and being creative.

What do you like most about your twin?

Shirley: She takes the initiative about everything, and I like that.

Sharon: She has a strong mind and is independent.

How do people tell you apart?

Shirley has a birthmark over her left eye.

Is there an evil twin?

Sharon: I’m the good twin.

Shirley: And I love it.

If you had twins, what would you do differently than your parents?

Shirley: Do not spoil them.

Sharon: Do not dress them alike.

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Lane and Carter Ware

The Ware twins grew up in Galveston and graduated from Ball High School in 2008, the sixth generation of Ware children to do so. The twins then attended the University of Virginia together and only were separated for the first time when they studied abroad in different countries as sophomores. Since graduating in 2012, they both have worked in the field of finance, albeit for separate companies. Their goal is to one day start a business together, they said.

– Story by Matt deGrood

Age: 29

Place of birth: Galveston, sixth generation

Where do they live now?

Lane: Houston.

Carter: Austin.

Fraternal or identical? Identical

Do you have twin telepathy?

Lane: We’ve experienced “twin telepathy” many times growing up, particularly in sports when we would just “know” where each other was on the basketball court, or when we’re playing doubles tennis.

Carter: Yes, we’ve seemed to have a sense of telepathy particularly when playing sports. For example, in doubles tennis, we never needed to use signals — we just seemed to always know which way the other was going to move.

What do you love about being a twin?

Lane: It is a very special and wonderful thing having a best friend to grow up with and share life experiences with since Day 1. We have the same interests, so it has always been very easy to get along.

Carter: Having a unique personal connection and, especially when we were younger, always having someone to play sports or piano with and compete against to improve.

What don’t you love about being a twin?

Lane: There’s a whole lot to love about being a twin, but if I had to pick something I didn’t love, I’d say it’s the extra effort you have to make when meeting new people to show that we are two individuals even though we look and sound similar.

Carter: Not much!

Have you ever dressed alike?

Lane: Our mom would dress us alike when we were babies, but I think we decided together to consciously dress differently starting around kindergarten or first grade.

Carter: Yes, our mom dressed us alike until about the first grade, but never after that.

Are you competitive with each other?

Lane: Quite competitive. Carter has been a major motivation for me growing up, wouldn’t have it any other way.

Carter: Yes, quite competitive with each other — particularly in sports. While growing up, we were competitive with each other at playing piano, and the spirit drove us to continue to play through high school — and we still play today.

What are you better at than your twin?

Lane: I like to think I’m a better golfer, but he’ll probably say he’s better at basketball.

Carter: Shooting a three-point shot in basketball, but he’s always been a better player at the rim.

What do you like most about your twin?

Lane: His creativity and how he’s always been there for me through thick and thin.

Carter: That he’s a great advocate and friend — someone I can always lean on.

If you had twins, what would you do differently than your parents?

Lane: I honestly think our parents did a spectacular job in raising us and helping us grow our individuality while maintaining a sense of connectedness as a twin. Wouldn’t change anything.

Carter: I think we were very lucky growing up that our parents were thoughtful in raising us as individuals, wouldn’t change anything.

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Emily and Julia Adams

Emily and Julia Adams look so much alike that strangers often argue they must be identical twins.

But Katherine Adams, their mother, doesn’t remember those strangers present at the ultrasound that showed the girls were fraternal twins in their individual amniotic sacs, she said.

The girls’ paternal grandfather also was a twin, their father Rob Adams said.

Both girls are creative. Both play in the Clear Falls High School Band. Emily, who loves to draw, wants to pursue graphic art in college, she said. Julia, who has been an entrepreneurial seamstress for six years, plans to study fashion design, she said.

Quiet and poised, Emily and Julia don’t complete each other’s sentences. Instead, they speak in their own sentences that complement the other’s thought.

“It’s like they were ready-made best friends,” their 15-year-old sister Caroline Adams said.

– Story by Valerie Wells

Age: 17 (Emily is older by a minute)

Place of birth: Houston

Where they live now: Taylor Lake Village

Do you have twin telepathy?

Emily: Other than us saying the same thing at the same time, I don’t think so.

What do you love about being a twin?

Julia: Seeing people’s faces when they mix you up.

What don’t you love about being a twin?

Julia: You share everything.

Have you ever dressed alike?

Julia: I feel we wore the same pajamas at the same time.

Are you competitive with each other?

Generally, no, they said.

Emily: We used to race each other in the pool.

Did you ever try to pretend to be your twin?

Julia: We’ve gotten that suggestion a lot, and we should have.

What are you better at than your twin?

Emily: Drawing.

Julia: Sewing.

What do you like most about your twin?

Julia: We can burst into each other’s room without knocking.

Emily: We don’t judge each other.

If you had twins, what would you do differently than your parents?

Their parents treated both girls as individuals, they said.

Emily: I’d probably do the same thing.

How do people tell you apart?

Julia: I have longer hair.

Is there an evil twin?

Julia: I like to think of myself as the evil twin.

What do you argue about?

Julia: Mostly unreasonable things.

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John and Harold Vanderpool

Twins John and Harold Vanderpool grew up in Port Arthur and both moved to Galveston as faculty members at the University of Texas Medical Branch — Harold in medical ethics and John in psychiatry. Harold remains professor emeritus. They attended college together at Harding College — now Harding University — in Searcy, Arkansas, and both earned master’s degrees in religious studies at Abilene Christian College before diverging: Harold to Harvard to continue religious studies, and John to the University of Tennessee at Memphis for medical school.

John believes Harold saved his life when they were children on a Boy Scout camping trip, hiking in extreme cold weather in too-light clothing.

“I was so cold and numb and I turned to Harold and said, ‘I just need to sit and rest for a while,’” John said. “Harold looked at me and said, ‘You’re a real coward. You’re just going to sit there when you’re so cold and freeze to death? Well, be my guest. Just go ahead and do that.’”

That made John so mad, he got up and started chasing his brother, warming up easily, he said.

– Story by Kathryn Eastburn

Age: 82

Place of birth: Port Arthur

Where do you live now?

John: Galveston

Harold: Austin

Do you have twin telepathy?

Harold: We developed our own language when we were small. The only person who could interpret our language was our little brother, Roy, and only because his life depended upon it. Throughout our lives, although we were hell-bent on being different from each other and unique, we were always deeply connected.

John: When I had a coronary, I called Harold and told him to get his arteries checked out. It took him a while to convince a cardiologist to give him an arteriogram, but when he did, they found his descending artery was completely occluded.

What do you love about being a twin?

Harold: I think I have a soul brother that beats all other soul brothers. We were both co-captains of the football team and both made all-district team. It was just terrific to have someone so much like oneself but at the same time really different in important ways.

John: It makes life so much more interesting to have a partner like you that you share things with.

What don’t you love about being a twin?

Harold: There’s nothing I don’t love about being a twin. Did I ever wish to not be a twin? No.

John: There are times when we get confused for something that one of us did and really worked hard to do, and the other’s given credit for it. Twinship sometimes gets to the point where you’re worn out and you just want to stand alone as a person.

Have you ever dressed alike?

Harold: If John would put on a yellow shirt, I would find something different. That’s part of the effort to be different.

John: Our mother’s brother was a pediatrician and he talked with her and said, ‘Don’t dress them alike. Put them in different classes. Don’t foster the twinship.’

Are you competitive with each other?

Harold: The competition was extremely keen when we went into college classes. I wasn’t interested in knocking the curve off, but I was going to beat John in that class and he was going to beat me.

John: Very much so. We always have been. We were competitive in sports and in achieving academically.

Did you ever try to pretend to be your twin?

Harold: No, though sometimes I was confused with him and didn’t correct the person. Once, in college, we played twins in Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” and we blew the audience away. In that sense, I pretended to be John and he pretended to be me. We confused everybody.

What are you better at than your twin?

Harold: I hate to say that I’m better at John at anything, although I’m convinced I am on several scores.

John: I have a little bit more of an analytic mind than he does. I know that Harold is much better at working with groups and people that differ with him.

What do you like most about your twin?

Harold: I enjoy his passions, the way he becomes passionate over whatever he does. I enjoy the humor we share back and forth and, at our age, I enjoy the memories we share. I remember at one point I had more teeth than John and we were eating an apple. I’d bite it first and then hand it over to John.

John: I think he’s a really loving, caring person. He’s so likable and lovable. He’s got a great understanding of religion, more so than I do. I just think he’s one of the greatest guys around.

How do people tell you apart?

Harold: The main distinction for years was that I parted my hair on the right side and John on the left. He thought he was better looking than I was, but I knew I was better looking than he was.

John: No, he’s not. He’s woefully wrong about that.

Is there an evil twin?

Harold: I think John had a rougher time with my dad than I did because he got in more trouble. I was always working to smooth things over and be likable and popular. With John, you got what you got.

What do you argue about?

Harold: We differ, but we don’t argue. I think the main difference at the present time is political.

John: That’s really true. We don’t argue. When I anticipate visiting with him again, I never have in mind ‘Oh no, now I’m going to have to deal with that again.’ We share a mutual respect and long friendship based on trust and helping the
other person.