Gravestone of Twins Who Died Two Days and 101 Years Apart Goes Viral

A picture of the gravestone of twins who died 101 years apart has gone viral on the popular discussion forum Reddit.

A post showing the image of a tall black gravestone reveals that a baby called Emily E. Dodsworth died at just 2 days old in 1910, while her twin sister, Minnie G., lived until 2011.

The post has received 108,000 likes since being posted by u/winooskiwinter on September 4.

Aaron O'Neill, an expert on historical data, said the mortality rate in the United States for children under the age of 5 in 1910 was 206.92 deaths per thousand births. This means over 20 percent of children didn't make it to their fifth birthday.

In 2020, America had 92,000 centenarians, and they will total 589,000 by 2060, according to Statista.

The posting Redditer, u/winooskiwinter, told Newsweek: "I was on vacation in the Canadian Maritimes last month and visited Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to see the graves of Titanic victims, as there are over 100 buried there. I wandered around the cemetery a bit afterward and came across the sisters' stone."

"I just found the whole thing very moving—that two names and their birth and death dates can so immediately tell a story," u/winooskiwinter said.

The most popular comment on the post, from user japsie16, received 14,800 likes. It said: "That's really cool and kind of depressing too."

Rook218 said: "I wonder how I'd feel about it. At a certain point, it's just a bit of trivia about yourself, right? I wonder if you'd ever really think about what your twin would have meant to you, or if it's just another thing to pull out during 'two truths and a lie.'"

Noting Minnie's age, one Redditor commented on how she must have seen "every technological advancement within her lifetime."

Dividing the two deaths on the tombstone is a short poem that reads: "Adieu, sweet babe, short as thy stay, just looked around then called away."

Online database Find a Grave shows that the twins were born on November 10, 1910. Minnie Grace was 100 years old when she died on January 8, 2011. She was born in Halifax and worked as a secretary at the West End United Baptist Church for years. She provided piano accompaniment along with the organist at regular services and other church functions.

User sanjosanjo said: "I wonder if Minnie spent 100 years looking at the empty space on the bottom half of the headstone, just wondering when her name would be added and what poem she would get."

Redditor jspsfx said: "Twins are fascinating. They experience some of the deepest human connection, which in turn leaves them open to the deepest heartache if the worst happens."

It seems the original poster isn't the only person who looks at random gravestones, as commenters shared their experiences too.

O_o-22 said: "There's an old cemetery in my hometown that had a grave from 1863 of two sisters that died two days apart from each other with clasped hands carved in it and the words 'United in death.'

"Underneath at the bottom was an inscription for their brother who was killed two months later in a southern state in the US civil war. That poor family really had a sh**ty year in 1863," the commenter said.

Update 9/6/22, 11:25 a.m. ET: This story was updated with a comment from u/winooskiwinter, information from Find a Grave and the original photo on Reddit.