The "Oldest Living Conjoined Twins Recently Die" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about the oldest living conjoined twins who lived in nearby Reading, Pennsylvania, but recently died.  Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in nearby Reading, Pennsylvania.  

They were 62 years old.  I was going to add both were 62, but thought better of it.  The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.  The cause of death was not listed.  When they were born, the doctors didn't think they would make 30 years of age, but they proved them wrong when they turned 50.  The twins were born September 18, 1961 in West Reading, Pennsylvania.  They had distinct brains, but were joined at the skull.  George, who had spina bifida was 4 inches shorter, and was wheeled around by Lori on an adaptive wheeled stool.  Despite each having to go where the other one went, it was "very important" to both "to live as independently as possible," their obituary said. Both graduated from a public high school and took college classes.  George went along for six years as Lori worked in a hospital laundry.  Lori - "a trophy-winning bowler," according to the obituary notice, gave up the job in 1996 so her sibling could launch a country music career.  "Since the age of 24, they have maintained their own residence and have traveled extensively," the obituary notice read.  Over the years, they appeared in many documentaries and talk shows, as well as in an episode of the FX medical drama "Nip/Tuck."  The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper reported that Lori was engaged to be married, but her fiancé died in an automobile accident.  "When I went on dates," Lori said, "George would bring along books to read."  The twins said in a 1997 documentary that they had different bathing schedules and showered one at a time.  George spoke of giving someone your love and respect "the privacy and compromise in situations that you would want them to give you."  Lori said compromise meant "you don't get everything you want right when you want it."  Cojoined twins occur once in every 50,000 to 60,000 births when identical twins from a single embryo fail to separate.  About 70% are female, and most are stillborn.  Only a small percentage are joined at the head, with nearly three-quarters joined at the chest and others at the abdomen or pelvis.  Separation was deemed risky for the Schappell twins, but Lori Schappell told the Associated Press in a 2002 interview at the twins' apartment in a high-rise seniors complex that she didn't think such as operation was necessary in any case.   "You don't mess with what God made, even if it means you enjoy both children for a shorter time," she said.  In a 1997 documentary, George also strongly ruled out the idea of separation saying, "why fix what is not broken?"  It isn't immediately clear who will now take the title of oldest living confined twins.  The oldest ever documented were Ronnie and Donnie Galyon, who died in 2020 at age 68.  Eng and Chang Bunker, the 19th century "Siamese twins" who gained fame as a circus act, lived to be 63.  The Chappell twins' survivors include their father and six siblings.  Private services are planned, the funeral home said.  As I studied the photograph in the newspaper I just had to wonder why God felt it necessary to create a pair of children that were conjoined to the point of not being able to be separated without death.  There must have been a reason!  Perhaps I will never know that reason.....or maybe it best that I don't know the reason.  The West Reading twins seem to have a life together that can't get any closer.  I don't think I could handle it, had it been me.  But, who knows.  Perhaps God gave them the knowledge and love necessary for their survival.  So Be It!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.