DOUBLE THE FUN AT REUNION
FOR twins Pamela Edmonton and Kathleen Delves, their 89th birthday celebration was an extra special occasion.
With a twinkle in their identical piercing blue eyes, the pair reminisced about their lives spent apart as they reunited for the first time in years.
But the twins, who were born in London in 1929 weighing less than three pounds each, were not even expected to survive a few days let alone 89 years.
“In those days you didn’t have incubators and we were born at home, our mother didn’t even know she was pregnant with twins so it was quite the surprise,” said Mrs Edmonton.
“We were not expected to survive, yet here we are.”
With Mrs Edmonton in the UK and Mrs Delves living in Australia since 1989, the “very different” identical twins have spent the better part of three decades living worlds apart with Mrs Delves visiting her sister in England every few years.
However, this was the first time Mrs Edmonton had visited her sister in Australia and said she did not realise how far away it was.
“It was a long trip but it has been fantastic coming over here,” she said. “I guess I do miss her sometimes but I have had a busy life with my family and she went her own sweet way. I was very keen on sport and she wasn’t really, well not as much as me.”
Mrs Edmonton was a housewife working as a secretary at a local garage who married her husband Brian and cared for her three children.
Sadly her eldest son drowned in an accident when he was young, her daughter is now 61 and youngest son, 59. Brian passed away four years ago.
Mrs Delves and husband Phillip, who passed away in 2003, followed only daughter Jo Gilbey to Australia in the 1980s, leaving behind Pamela.
She said she had fond memories growing up and going to school in the UK where she and her sister would get up to mischief.
“We would sometimes swap boyfriends and things like that and I was a bit naughty and would send my sister into classes for me,” she said.
Mrs Delves worked in the taxation office before moving on to the town hall planning building, but now considered herself a bit of a whiz with a pool cue.
“I play a lot of pool nowadays,” she said.
“I was the first woman at the local club and they’ve given me names like Snooker Queen among other things.”
The twins, who often get mistaken for Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, celebrated their 89th birthday with a party of close family and friends at Sanctuary Cove on Saturday.