‘That’s Jorge, he works in my office,’ she told her friend, Janeth, who was standing beside her. But the man barely acknowledged her. Janeth was also confused, as she knew the butcher by the name William. Turned out WIlliam, 24, had a doppelgänger – Laura’s colleague at the engineering firm where she worked.
The boys didn’t just look similar – they were identical. Snapping a photo of William, Laura showed it to Jorge – who was amazed. But the similarities didn’t end there. When the pair met, they were stunned to realise they both had fraternal twin brothers. While William and Jorge were the spitting image of each other, their siblings Carlos and Wilber also looked eerily alike.
It turned out that both sets of twin boys had been switched at birth. William and Jorge were born two months early on December 21, 1988. A day later, Wilber and Carlos arrived at a different hospital. Also premmie, Carlos fell ill and he and Wilber were taken to the other hospital for treatment. All placed in the same room, a mix-up meant that William went home with Wilber and his parents, while Carlos and Jorge went with Jorge’s mum.
Incredibly, even though the identical twins had grown up apart, they shared similar personality traits. Jorge and William are more chatty, while Carlos and Wilber are quieter. Four years on from the reunion, the boys refer to themselves as ‘four brothers’. They’re planning to travel as a family and even buy a house to live in together!
Read more in this week's issue of that's life!
