When I looked back on my childhood, I consider myself extremely lucky to have grown up in the same home as my siblings.
So much of my youth was spent playing with my brothers; even the bickering and occasional fights we had have provided colorful memories that I look back on fondly now.

I’m also well aware that such an arrangement – having all my siblings under the same roof – isn’t a luxury afforded to all. In some cases brothers and sisters are separated when their parents move apart. In other cases – admittedly rarer and more extreme – an individual can grow up not even knowing they have a sibling!

Just ask Jennifer and Kathleen, two twins from the UK who were torn apart at birth when their mother had to make a truly heartbreaking decision…

Jennifer and Kathleen’s incredible story began over six decades ago, when their biological mother, who was single and unwed, fell pregnant.

As per reports, the young woman already had a son and was living with her parents. When she gave birth to a set of twin girls, she was faced with a decision no mother should ever have to make. Namely, extreme financial constraints and the societal struggles of the time meant that she couldn’t take her babies home with her.

Instead, she was forced to put them up for adoption.

As fate would have it, Jennifer was adopted by a woman who lived just two doors down the road. Kathleen, meanwhile, found a new home a few miles away.

The twins didn’t know this, however, and so though they grew up living in the same small patch of the Earth – in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England – they had no idea how close they were to one another at all times. As per reports, the twins even shared the same dentist!