Identical twin sisters from Yorkshire celebrate their 100th birthdays - and say it's like being 50
Anne Brown and Florence Boycott saw each other for the first time in years for a party at Mrs Boycott’s care home in Barnsley – the South Yorkshire town where they have both lived all their lives.
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Hide AdThe women were surrounded by their friends and five generations of their family as they celebrated at The Firs residential home.
Mrs Brown remembered how even their father could not tell the difference between them when they were children.
“They couldn’t tell us apart,” she said. “My dad was hopeless. He could not tell us one from the other.
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Hide Ad“We were very close. We were always together, never one without the other.”
Mrs Brown added: “It doesn’t feel any different from when I was 50.”
She said she thought the secret to a long life was “just getting on with it” and early nights.”
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Hide AdMrs Boycott’s daughter, Kathy Lindsay, said the twins were two of 10 siblings – “five boys and five girls – in a two-bedroom house.”
“So, it makes you wonder how they managed. And it was outside toilets and tin baths in front of the fire. They were well looked after though.”
Mrs Lindsay said they looked absolutely identical when they were young, adding “I’ve got them mixed-up.”
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Hide Ad“My auntie Anne once walked into the house and I thought it was my mum. I said ‘What are you doing here, mum’, and it was my Auntie Anne. I’d get them mixed-up on the phone as well. Their voices were the same.
“They used to swap boyfriends if they’d got one they didn’t like and things like that.”
Mrs Lindsay said the twin sisters worked together for many years at Sugden’s shirt factory in Barnsley after leaving school, and her mother did a range of other jobs, including at a bakery, a dairy and as a school cleaner.
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Hide AdShe said her aunt was still working in her mid-90s on a sewing stall in Barnsley Market, and continues to lives independently.
Mrs Brown has one daughter. Mrs Boycott had three daughters, one of whom died, and she has seven grandchildren, six great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.
Mrs Lindsay thanked The Firs for putting on a good party for the twins.