Life's a Trip... let

Minna, Joe and Grandma Betty, 1929 Minna, Joe and Betty, 2013

Last month I posted some photos on social media that included my grandmother and her triplet sister and brother. Recently this article surfaced which named the oldest living triplets and I would venture to guess the Hocky trips are in the top five AT LEAST. (They're 88.)

Their story is pretty incredible, considering they were born in 1927. Their birth was such an anomaly that Ripley gave them a signed copy of his Believe it or Not book, with signatures from all of the New York personalities of the day.

"To the Hocky triplets..." it read, and as a kid we all used to fawn over the book like it was the greatest treasure in all the land. (We were all obsessed with Ripley's Believe it Or Not.)

Obviously, in those days there was no way to know you were having a multiple birth, so when my great grandmother went to the hospital to deliver her second child and THREE came out... I mean... can you even imagine? VAGINALLY, no less. HOT DAMN, SUPERWOMAN.

I often thought of Great-Grandma Belle whenever I felt overwhelmed with my twins -- grateful to have modern amenities and technological advancements. (When they were infants, my grandmother and her triplet siblings almost died of pneumonia but Grandma Belle stayed up all night, turned up the heat, and put wet cloths on all the radiators -- turning the apartment into a steam bath and clearing out all those little lungs. She also got up at every morning at 4am to prepare the bottles for the day and spent a good part of those first few years hand-washing 7868768787 diapers a day.)

My Grandma, Betty, and her sister, Minna are identical and they have a fraternal brother named Joe.

Every year on their birthdays, they get together and celebrate and my grandma and her identical twin sister regularly show up to the same event in matching clothes on accident.

In my grandma's words:

I was the last of the triplets born. My brother Joseph arrived first followed by my sister Minna. We were each 3-4 pounds at birth and put in incubators. My parents had no idea they were having a multiple birth since there were no ultrasounds in those days. What a shock! They had a daughter who was 2 1/2 years old at our birth. From then on my mother always said "I liked the sample so I stocked up".

We moved to Far Rockaway after a few months where we had wonderful summers on the beach. Then we moved to the Bronx and on to mid- Manhattan to attend school . We had fun times growing up in a very normal, loving home. The three of us attended college in New York City. (Joseph is a lawyer, Minna was a travel agent, and I was an elementary school teacher.)

Although we do not live near each other we are in constant contact with our siblings and every year, on our birthday, we spend the week together in matching berets. (Not really.)

My mother, Belle, was an amazing woman. She lived to the ripe old age of 96 with all her faculties. Although she had very little formal education she had a great deal of common sense and an amazing talent at numbers. My father was a businessman and was very creative. Both instilled good values and a love for the arts, and commitment to family and friends. I was blessed to be surrounded by a large loving family. (Now I have six children which includes my two sons and one daughter and their spouses. My claim to fame is that I have identical twin grandsons and twin great granddaughters!)

- Gigi

I'm on a bit of a family tour right now here on GGC.  I am a big fan of these people, if you haven't noticed, and I find every one of them far too fascinating to keep them to myself...  My brother's up next. YOU'RE UP NEXT, DAVID!

Happy Thursday almost Friday, all!

GGC