astro
August 12, 2002, 1:34pm
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At Age 40, Conjoined Twins Are Following Their Dreams
READING, Pa., Aug. 11 – While the doctors who separated conjoined twins in Los Angeles talk about the little girls’ prospects for healthy, productive lives, another pair of conjoined twins say that’s exactly the life they’ve lived for 40 years.
The women, one a former hospital worker, the other an aspiring country-and-western singer, say the separation isn’t necessary.
“I don’t think it should be done,” Lori Schappell told the Associated Press in an interview at the twins’ apartment in a high-rise seniors complex. “You don’t mess with what God made, even if it means you enjoy both children for a shorter time.”
Lori and her sister, Reba, live a life few people can imagine.
They have two distinct brains, but they are joined at the skull, so where one goes, the other must. Reba, who has spina bifida, is four inches shorter than Lori, so her sister wheels her around on an adaptive wheeled stool.
Both sisters graduated from a public high school, and each has taken college classes.
etc.
I’ve seen them in a tv documentary. They’re amazingly brave. I think one of them said something like, “I think it would be good for world peace if the leaders had to get along with each other like we do”. I thought that was a rather cool idea.
I’ve seen these women on TV. They’re just amazing.
No, I could not imagine living like that.