Separated twins' shock at meeting

Identical twins Yvette and Margaret Smith (picture: South Wales Argus)

Identical twins who were adopted at birth and had no idea the other existed have described their astonishment when they finally saw each other.

Yvette and Margaret Smith were raised less than a mile apart, but went to different schools in Newport.

But when they were 14 one of Margaret's friends changed schools, and on seeing Yvette said: "Hello Margaret, I didn't know you were moving here as well".

They have been inseparable since and are celebrating their 65th birthdays.

The twins were born prematurely and never told that they had a sister.

"When we were born our mum couldn't have us, so we were adopted separately," said Yvette.

It was 1957 before the lucky encounter which finally brought the teenage twins together.

Margaret's friend left Fairoak school, and on seeing Yvette at nearby St Andrew's assumed she was Margaret.

Yvette recalled: "I said, 'Oh no, my name is Yvette. And she said, 'Oh, you look like my friend Margaret.

"So I went back home and my mum said, 'I must tell you, you've been adopted'. So she said, 'Maybe you would like to see your sister - perhaps you'd like to ask her to come to tea'.

I'd say, oh yes, your nose looks like mine and my mouth looks like your mouth and our eyes were the same Margaret Smith on meeting her twin Yvette for the first time

"And Margaret agreed, but it was a very frightening experience first of all - fluttering in your tummy, when you meet someone that looks just like you.

"And I can remember as soon as we walked in the room we looked at that mirror, and we looked and looked and we couldn't believe it."

Same taste

Margaret said: "We just kept looking at it and just giggling and I'd say, oh yes, your nose looks like mine and my mouth looks like your mouth and our eyes were the same."

Within a month, Margaret had moved in with Yvette and her adoptive parents, as her own adoptive mother had died three years earlier.

The twins soon discovered they shared the same taste in clothes, books and music, as well as hating PE at school and loving rock 'n' roll and Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard.

The similarities continued, with both becoming Mrs Smith when Margaret married Dave Smith and Yvette wed Ray Smith.

The said they had even experienced each other's pain during childbirth.

"When Margaret was having Steven, on the actual day she gave birth I was dreadful and I felt really ill, I was dropping the potatoes on the floor and I knew she had had the baby," said Yvette.

Margaret said: "On Yvette's second baby, Derek, I felt really, really ill, so I knew exactly when she was having him, it was a very weird sensation."

Now the pair are marking their 65th birthday on Saturday with a family party before planning to see the musical Dirty Dancing in London - together, naturally.