The Twins: Rina & Ines

Are there any twins in your lives? What’s their relationship like? Well in my case, my Mom has an identical twin and they stick together like glue.

Benvenuti and Welcome. I’m Silvana Saccomani and this is The Italian Diary: Reflections of a Canadian-Italian Daughter. Here I share stories of living between two worlds: Canada, where I was born and Italy where my parents came from, and where I also now live with my husband.

In this episode I share the story of The Twins, Ines and Rina, born in a small town in northern Italy in 1935.

You know what they say about twins – gemelli_ and their special connection: When one has a headache, or mal di testa, the other is rubbing their temples? When one has a craving for sweets, the other is suddenly in the kitchen mixing flour (farina) and zucchero or sugar with butter and eggs?

My Mom, Ines, shares this extraordinary seemingly telepathic quality with her identical twin, Rina.  In addition to their supernatural power, they are each other’s best friend – migliori amiche- staunchest defender, and most honest critic.

Their unbreakable bond traces back to the northern part of Italy in the mid 1930s when the country was in dire poverty (or grande miseria)

 They are daughters of a corn farmer- un contadino- and on their farm, there was only one donkey, (un asino) three cows (tre mucche) a few geese (alcune oche) and lots of chickens. (tanti polli)

In the morning, they would wake up at sunrise to go in the barn to milk their beloved Friesians, Stella and Bianca.  The last few pulls were always set aside and watered-down to serve up with leftover polenta for breakfast. The twins literally shared all their meals because breakfast, lunch and dinner were served to both on the same bowl and plate.

One thing the twins did not experience together was attending school or scuola.

There were two practical reasons why they had to take turns attending class. First, the town’s tiny classroom had space for only one of them at a time. The second was the issue of the chair. Each student had to bring their own straw chair from home. Their family had only one extra chair to spare; that meant the twins learned half the lessons for each grade.

As teenagers, Ines and Rina understood there were advantages and fun to being twins. Double dating was a real treat especially when they pretended to be the girlfriend of the other boyfriend (ragazzo) leaving the poor chaps confused and not sure if they went out with the ‘right’ twin.

Ines came into this world first, but Rina was the feisty one. When a local rich family did not pay Mom for the housework she did, it was Rina who confronted them.  Later when Mom married Dad and moved to Canada, Rina stole stamps - francobolli- to mail letters she had written to her twin. They were apart less than a year before Rina joined Ines in Michel Natal, B.C.

Growing up it was like we had two moms. The biological one—who gave birth to four girls and a boy—took care of our physical needs; the other—with two boys and no girls— helped support our emotional ones.  We were one big happy family. That is until I had a quarrel with Mom and would run away from home, vowing never to return. Our Aunt, or Zia as we call her, lived a few kilometres away and that’s where I took refuge.  Zia Rina would listen compassionately and empathetically to my woes, then skillfully explained my Mom’s perspective. That conversation was followed by a phone call – telefonata- to my mom, where Zia repeated the process. Within a matter of hours, a truce had been negotiated and I made my way back home.

Today when one is thinking about the other; the other is already dialling the phone number.

END