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Twins celebrate 100th birthday in upstate New York
February 7, 1998
Web posted at: 11:41 a.m. EST (1641 GMT)BRIGHTON, New York (Reuters) -- Twins Rhea Spohner and Ruth Emblow celebrated their 100th birthday Friday, a feat experts said happens among just one set of twins out of 100,000.
The sisters live separately in apartments in the same senior citizens' complex, while their little sister, who is 94, lives nearby, they said.
"We couldn't live together," Emblow told the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper. "We're exact opposites in everything."
But they share a fondness for chocolate and enjoy watching figure skating on television, they told the newspaper. Looking many years younger than their age, they said they cook for themselves, with a little help from friends.
Statistically, only one pair of twins out of 100,000 survives so long, said James Vaupel, a demographer at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Longevity runs in the family. The twins' mother died at age 101, their father lived to be 87 and all six of his sisters lived to be more than 90 years old, the twins said.
Spohner and Emblow, who are fraternal twins, always have lived in Rochester in upstate New York. The senior citizens' complex is in a Rochester suburb. They planned to have a birthday party at the complex Sunday.
Spohner was married in 1947 and widowed in 1976 and has no children. Her twin sister never married.
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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