Here is a sampling of the stories you will find in Twin Stories.

Jackie Gagnon and Jeannine St. Hilaire have spent forty-four years together and celebrate their twinness everyday. "We think alike, even when we are not together," said Jeannine. "It is like we have the same mind--just split in two, and these two halves are walking around in two different places. Often we say things in stereo. We will be in a conversation and say 'wow' together. That is just what talking and thinking in stereo feels like."

The Connection

"I lost my twin Mike in a car accident," said Lori Neiwert, thirty-eight. "He lost control of his truck, rolled into a lake and drowned. I was on my way to Alaska and in the middle of Canada, I felt him die. I didn't want to know that was what I was feeling but in my heart I knew. I have always said that I had two hearts, his and mine. When mine beat, his answered. That night there was no answer."

Andrew and Anthony Hill have experienced what they call blood dreams. Their story is remarkable. Anthony said, "I worked as a lifeguard in high school. Andrew worked at a pizza place. It was pretty common for me to come in at the end of the day and go to bed, but my brother would have to work until midnight or so. One night, he ended the evening by cutting his finger on his left hand. He's left-handed; I'm right-handed. We are mirror twins. Anyway, he came in and went to bed. The next morning, I woke up and my right hand was split in the same spot where his finger has been cut. Unbelievable to some, but to us, it just happens."

Teena Wood, forty-eight, feels the never-ending pain of twin loss even though she never knew her twin. Teena explained, "I lost my twin at birth. She lived just three hours. We shared a womb together for seven months. How close can you get? I did not realize until I had completed a lot of therapy in my mid thirties and early forties how impacted I was by her loss. It affected my ability to have close relationships and to feel that I even deserved happiiness in theworld. I felt responsible for her death and had survivor's guilt. Finally, in my forties, I grieved her loss for the first time. It was very poignant for me and also bittersweet. But I felt like I'd been sent free. I felt as though I'd just gotten out of my own prison and I'd been the one with the key all the time."

"About a month after my identical twin sister, Michon, was killed, I was at my mother's house. I was asleep, I could smell my sister's breath and her perfume, and I could hear her. She came to me and said she was okay and that her daughter, Tori, who had also been killed in the plane crash, was also okay. That never happened again to me with anybody. At first, the whole thing scared me, but then I took great comfort in her words."

Michele continued, "I think of her all the time and I can feel her with me. She is still in my dreams. There are times that I pray to her for strength and I pray that she can see her kids. There is one thing about being a twin, when something like this happens, I'm not anxious to die but I am not afraid of it either."

Joan Pahls Notch, an identical twin, explains: "It is very difficult for people to understand that children from the ages of three to six develop their own language. Identical twins do that. Even though it is very normal, it is not socially acceptable. It is a communication that we create between ourselves that nobody can understand. We knew that nobody else could understand, therefore it gave us power, and it was fun."

"My parents used competition as a way to motivate us," said Connie Wyckoff, fifty-eight, when talking about growing up as a twin. "That was very important to our folks. If one of us got an A and the other got a B, my parents would make us feel that the only one loved was the one who got an A. It was a difficult way to be raised. My folks and I talked about it recently and they said they didn't know it was a negative at the time. When we were growing up, no one gave you a class on how to rear twins. They did the best they could."

"We didn't really play tricks on people on purpose," said Sister Rosemary. "Not really. Not that I remember. We are usually the victims of people playing tricks on themselves. I remember when we started college; we both entered the convent and joined the church community at the same time. When we were in the first year of college, one of our professors became angry because he couldn't tell us apart. He said that he wanted one of us to wear a chain and a medal so he would know who was who. Mother Superior gave Sister Jane Frances the chain and medal to wear outside on her dress. The professor then said, 'Well my God, now I don't remember which one of them is wearing the medal!'

You may be shocked to learn that even twins themselves can get confused. It's happened time and time again. Chuck Szopo, twenty-three, lovingly rats on his brother: "Last week at the hotel, Mike was washing his hands, saw his reflection, and had a conversation with the mirror."

Ellen Starr and Helen Underwood, age fifty-eight, admit they, too, have had their moments of confusion. "One day I was in a department store, and I didn't know that my twin was in the department store as well. We were going down separate aisles, I looked over and saw her, but I thought I was looking into a mirror. We were in the cosmetic department and you know how many mirrors they have there. I looked into 'the mirror' and thought to myself, I'm not wearing that outfit! I back up, and at the same time she backed up. She said, 'Oh, Ellen!' and I said, 'Oh, Helen!' Talk about a good laugh!."