CNN.com - Complications hit twins' surgery - Jul. 7, 2003: "Laden and Laleh Bijani"
Watching the news about the surgery to separate Laden and Laleh Bijani, the conjoined Iranian twins got me thinking about my twin nieces. It just so happens that they are being physically separated while one of them goes on a summer exchange program to Ghana.

My nieces are neither conjoined nor identical. They are fraternal twins and have quite independent personalities. But, since they are only in their teens, it might be the longest they have ever been apart from each other. Both events occurring at the same time really got me thinking about what it must be like to separate from your twin. For the Bijani Twins, the effort comes with the un-imaginable risk of losing your twin sister so that you might live. I can't imagine what it must be like... the conversations they had to have. They probably share so many thoughts and yet must each contemplate their own personal preferences while caring so deeply for the other.

My father was a twin. His (non-twin) brother used to say that when Ted got hurt that Ned (my father) would cry. I wonder what it must be like for Bijani twins right now. I hope the surgery goes well. As for my nieces, I get to see one of them in two weeks and can ask her then.