Twins turn 95, and celebrate 75th wedding anniversary

Spencer Remoquillo

PICKERINGTON - They look alike, act alike, dress alike and even buy the same clothes when they aren't shopping together.

Identical twins Pauline and Marvine have shared every major moment in life together, including the moment they met and married their husbands, who are first cousins, 75 years ago.

This year marks two significant milestones in Pauline Trimmer's and Marvine Weaver's lives. They are each commemorating their 75th wedding anniversaries this year and turning 95 Tuesday.

The key to their lifelong relationships with their husbands and each other is "love, laughter and the Lord," Pauline said as she sat in front of a fireplace in January, with her husband Nelson on one side and her sister Marvine and her husband, Neal, on the other.

Neal and Marvine, the younger of the two sisters by 15 minutes, live at a senior care facility in Pickerington. Pauline and Nelson live in Millersport, where they have lived for 70 years after Nelson was discharged from the military.

When the twins were born, Marvine said there wasn't technology to determine if a woman was having twins. "They were so surprised they couldn't think of what to call us," Marvine said, adding that they were never given middle names.

The sisters were inseparable and laughed at the mention of their favorite hobby — talking.

"We never disagreed with each other," Pauline said. "We were so much alike. We had our own language."

Nelson remembers the first time he spotted the sisters at a church ice cream social in 1938. Nelson, who wanted to ask Pauline on a date, quickly realized the sisters were a package deal and brought his cousin Neal along for Marvine.

"My dad wouldn't let one of us go on a date — we always went double," Marvine said.

Nelson, who is 97 and the oldest of the group, can recall many stories of courting Pauline, specifically a stormy night when the power went out at the twins' parents' home. Neal and Nelson had come over to visit them and were still talking when the room went dark. They figured the power would come back on and didn't think much of it until Nelson said their father had walked in, tried turning on the lights, and told the boys it was time to go home.

"If he had flipped that switch and the light had come on, we would've been dead," Nelson said, laughing. "The things you remember."

Dating was different back then, Nelson said. There were less places to go and things to do. He still remembers the twins' curfew, which was surprisingly set at midnight.

"Their dad gave them strict instructions," he said.

About three years after they met, the couples married. Neal and Marvine married Jan. 11, 1938, with Nelson and Pauline following May 25, 1938.

A lot of their time was spent at church, before and after they were married. The sisters then brought their own families up in the church, instilling the same values as they had experienced as children. The twins' long-lasting marriages also left an impression on their children.

"It showed us marriage is forever," said Pat Young, one of Neal and Marvine's three children. "I was married 44 years when my husband passed away. We grew up believing in the wedding vows."

Combined, the twins have five children, 12 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren. Growing up in the Trimmer and Weaver households, Young said the children were more like siblings than cousins; they were together constantly.

While generations of the family have heard the twins' stories of dating and marriage, time still passed quickly for the couples as they commemorate 75 years together.

Looking back on the day Nelson first saw the sisters and how it transpired into a 75-year marriage, he said one thing was certain.

"They picked us," he said.


Twitter: @SpencerRemo