Norma Matthews and Edith “Edy” Antoncecchi claim that “people love that we’re still together,” according to an article in the Washington Post. And seeing the centenarians’ radiant smiles, it’s not surprising.
The women, who were born near Boston, celebrated their landmark birthdays in December. And while their life seems full of joy now, it wasn’t always the case.
When the inseparable twins were 13, their father left their mother for another woman. It was then down to their mom to pay all the bills with her income from a shoe factory. Back then, it caused a lot of scandal and the twins were stigmatized: “When he divorced our mother, other kids avoided us like we had a disease,” Norma shared.
Shunned by others
So the pair turned to each other even more. “We made our own fun,” explained Edy, the oldest twin by a couple of minutes. They would get up to mischief by dressing up as each other and swapping classes, and they’d also look after their little brother, John. “We didn’t have it easy, but we had a lot of fun,” recollected Edy.
The twins were inseparable. They both fell in love and married in same year: Norma married Charles Matthews on Valentine’s Day and Edy said her vows to Leo “Chick” Antoncecchi three months later.