I'm an Irish twin

On November 27, 1956, Harding and Carole Dixon became parents of 

"Irish Twins".  

They have unique Irish Twins as the girls were born in the same year.  

Here we are on Kay's 1st Birthday

Google search: The term “Irish twins” refers to siblings who are born within 12 months of one another to the same mother. This is especially true for children born in the same calendar year, or children who would be in the same grade of school. Irish twins share a strong bond. 

This is my 65th Birthday. 
We will be the same age for 54 days

Kay and I fit nicely into the definition of "Irish Twins". We are born to the same mother within 12 months.  We are unique in that we were born in the same year and were in the same grade.  On my "65th" birthday we celebrated together. Kay bought us matching Celtic necklaces as there wasn't any Irish Twin memorabilia to be purchased.   

When people would ask if we were twins, we would say "we are the closest you can get to being twins but not twins". I am sure having matching names and being dressed alike, would make people think that we were twins. We started school the same day, our birthday parties had the same girls at them.  Just the way it was, nothing odd about that for us.  The story goes when they registered my birth, the government sent the information back as they assumed there was an error.  Like Dad would say "I started and finished my family in 1956". 

Growing up as Kay and Faye meant that we answered to both names. We never corrected anyone when they called us the wrong name, it was okay with us.  We didn't resemble each other at all, but the names would often fall on the wrong person.  KaFaye was heard frequently from our parents.  I have been told our voices are very much alike.  I do remember talking to Dad on the phone for a period of time before he would say "oh it's Faye".  No phone ID at that time and doubtful he would have looked at it if there was.  

We dressed alike all the time usually with outfits that mom or Grandma Dempsey made.   As adults, we would frequently show up at events with matching clothes or very similar without even discussing it. I find it odd because I never liked it when I had the same outfit on as someone else, but I am always comfortable being dressed like Kay.    

Here we are ready for the Carnival with
dresses Grandma Dempsey made. 

In the Dixon household you would often see two of the same toys.  Usually, different colors but the same.  Interesting since toy selection wasn't the same as today.  I do remember the year Kay and I wanted twin dolls.  Mom made a weak attempt at trying to get us to share a set of twins.  We wanted no part of it and Santa delivered two sets of twin dolls.  Of course, he did.  

Here they are the epic twin dolls.

Kay's highchair was blue and mine was pink

I have to give my parents credit. I never once felt like I wasn't a planned pregnancy.  I think they took considerable ribbing because of how close we were in age, but it never occurred to me that I wasn't planned for the exact moment I was born.  Let's remember it was 1956 and planned parenthood wasn't a thing, babies were born and welcomed into the family whenever they arrived.  

It's a big day for the three of us

Even in todays, modern world many couples are choosing to have their babies very close.  Maybe not within a year but shortly thereafter.  I know no different than being close in age to my one and only sibling.  We rarely ever fought, probably because we had two of everything.  When I hear of people with close babies, my first thought is "they will always have someone to play with, and their relationship will be close".  Kay and I don't have a twin telepathy, but we do have a strong bond. 

I am like a child when it comes to my birthday.  It is not about the attention it is about having fun and making each birthday memorable.  A couple of years ago on my birthday I thought I should give a gift to someone else. I decided it would be a small TV. I listed it on the Facebook group, People of Brandon. I assumed at the very most I would get a couple of replies.  Well, in true Faye fashion that blew up like a volcano.  I had 43 requests, hundreds of likes and 250 birthday wishes from people I have never met.  That was not my intent, and I was shocked and overwhelmed to say the least.  Although, 43 people requested being the recipient of the TV, it was easy to eliminate down to 10.  I had asked that the person tell me why they wanted the TV.  The successful recipient's comment was from a friend of a single mom with two little girls, she wanted to be a Secret Santa for them.  This was clearly a situation of "women looking after other women".   I made the arrangements and left the TV on the friend's doorstep.  I got a picture shortly thereafter of the littlest girl sitting and watching TV, something we take for granted but for them this was a dream come true.  Last year I chose a not so popular site to give away my Christmas tree and decorations.  The response wasn't as grand which is what I wanted.  The tree went to a family of four children.  They lost all of their decorations to a flood in their basement.  As the mom was carrying the tree inside with the kids watched from the window, she yelled back to me "have a Happy birthday".  What a beautiful present to me.  I have decided that my birthday gift to someone else will not happen this year. I will pick up the tradition again but not this year.  

Last year my little baking buddy helped me decorate and deliver "65" cupcakes to celebrate my birthday.  She made it so much fun.  We delivered to my neighbors and if they weren't home, she wrote notes to them, and we left them on the doorstep as a surprise for later.  Everyone was allowed to pick their favorite and as you see they were well decorated.  Our best delivery was to the RCMP detachment.  They are just awesome with kids. As luck would have it, my little buddy is neighbors with one of the officers.  He later delivered a thank you note as well as a gift from the detachment.  What a fun day for us.  

  

Sweet little note for
the RCMP gift.

Here they are all 65 of them ready to share

As I embark on this new year, I am going to embrace my own words "Life is worth living".  My plan is to do 66 creative and memorable things in the next year.  I enjoy the feeling of happiness and contentment so I will strive to make that happen.  It would make my birthday so much more special for me, if you did something for yourself today in celebration.