Philippa Budgen visits twins, Mary and Maggi who took forty odd years to become real friends
Mary (left) and Maggi |
Mary was the first twin girl to be born and Maggi followed just ten minutes later. "She was there first and I was the afterthought and I didn't like that." The time lapse appears to have made a world of difference to their lives with Mary taking the lead and Maggi always trailing behind. Maggi remembers a very degrading incident at school when she was asked to spell her name. "I couldn't do it and the teacher asked me to go up to the next class to ask my twin sister to spell it for me." Mary wasn't completely oblivious to her sister's feelings and she would play music for troubled sister: "It was a tune called When The Sea Is Angry. It made me feel alive and peaceful."
As time went on, life became more turbulent for Maggi, she felt ugly, and stupid and she eventually attempted suicide. "They sectioned me. I had ECT (electroconvulsive therapy). I didn't want to be saved, I just wanted to die." There was a positive outcome to life in an institution, Maggi was to meet her husband to be there.
Both Maggi and Mary went through hard times with their relationships. Mary split with her husband and Maggi's husband who suffered from fits was so concerned about the safety of his wife and daughter took his own life by drinking weed killer and alcohol.
Maggi (left) and Mary |
What could have been another set back in Maggi's life was being diagnosed with dyslexia but that realisation actually helped her get her life back together again. It changed her whole attitude to life and gave her more confidence. She embarked on a career in alternative therapy, studying aromatherapy, reflexology, Indian head massage and hypnotherapy: "I've got hope - by doing something very tiny I can change things for people like me." Maggi is she admits a "nicer person now" and Mary says it has rubbed off, "She's much nicer to me now. We tell each other everything and that's why we get on so much better."
