Died on the Same Day... Twins Edition
JUNE 6, 2011 TAGS:
Longtime lovers and partners, husbands and wives sometimes die in close proximity. Call it the "widower effect," as Thomas Conner did last month. Doctors dub it, stress cardiomyopathy, "a temporary heart ailment caused by an intense and prolonged adrenaline rush." It's a physiological phenomenon that manifests grief's corporal power.
There are times however when death in close proximity is less cause and effect as it is uncanny coincidence. Take identical twins Julian and Adrian Riester. Born 92 years ago in Buffalo, the two were Franciscan friars who lived most of their lives at the St. Bonaventure Friary in upstate New York before retiring to Florida.
They both died on Thursday within hours of each other. According the their joint obituary in the St. Petersburg Times, the twins made artisans tables and cabinets spending almost everyday in lockstep in their workshop or tending to the friary's gardens. The robed twins first studied radio technology in Los Angeles before moving back to upstate New York.
They were separated only twice, when they had different assignments for other Franciscan churches or shrines. But since 1956 until Thursday, they were almost always together.
Both died of heart failure. Same genetics, same lifestyle, died the same day. Anecdotally, there is synchronous cause and effect. As a spokesperson from St. Bonaventure put it:
"Stunning, but hardly surprising given that they did almost everything together."
There are times however when death in close proximity is less cause and effect as it is uncanny coincidence. Take identical twins Julian and Adrian Riester. Born 92 years ago in Buffalo, the two were Franciscan friars who lived most of their lives at the St. Bonaventure Friary in upstate New York before retiring to Florida.They both died on Thursday within hours of each other. According the their joint obituary in the St. Petersburg Times, the twins made artisans tables and cabinets spending almost everyday in lockstep in their workshop or tending to the friary's gardens. The robed twins first studied radio technology in Los Angeles before moving back to upstate New York.
They were separated only twice, when they had different assignments for other Franciscan churches or shrines. But since 1956 until Thursday, they were almost always together.
Both died of heart failure. Same genetics, same lifestyle, died the same day. Anecdotally, there is synchronous cause and effect. As a spokesperson from St. Bonaventure put it:
"Stunning, but hardly surprising given that they did almost everything together."
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