Twinning
Lindsey Mungall’s bond with her twin sister is as sturdy as the walls that separate their families
When Lindsey Mungall learnt her twin sister was moving thousands of miles away, she made a monumental decision to up-sticks and join her in her new life.
Giving up everything, she flew across an ocean to share a home with her sister, Jenny, and Jenny’s husband, Jeff.
And when Lindsey later met her husband-to-be, the four of them maintained the same tight-knit living arrangement by moving all together into a bigger place.
Despite their families expanding and their fears that they may have to live away from each other, the devoted twins had a remarkable stroke of luck and bought side-by-side houses that were on the market in London at the same time.
IDENTICAL
Lindsey says, “I couldn’t bear to be apart from my sister, so we came up with the perfect solution. We adore living next door to each other.”
As little girls, identical twins Lindsey and Jenny loved playing houses together – they even had matching dolls’ houses. Jenny, who is one minute older than Lindsey, had painted hers pink, while Lindsey had chosen blue. Lindsey, 37, says, “Our mum encouraged us to have different interests, so we could carve out our own identities and, as teens, we branched out. Jenny got into dancing while I hurtled around the basketball court. But despite that, we were always drawn back to each other.”
The twins ended up going to the same university and studying the same course. They remained close when Jenny married Jeff in December 2011, and moved from their home city of Toronto to Chicago.
Lindsey regularly made the 10-hour drive to visit the newlyweds, but then Jenny announced she and Jeff would be moving to London in August 2013, so Jeff could attend business school.
Lindsey, says, “I felt so lost. Jenny would be 3,700 miles away. I held back the tears as I hugged her and counted the days until I could fly out to see her three months later. When we were finally reunited and were walking round London arm in arm, I made a decision, and told her I needed to be with her. She understood immediately and agreed.”
DISTANCE
They telephoned their mum, Debra, to tell her about Lindsey’s momentous decision to move to London, but before they managed to blurt out the news, their intuitive mother had already guessed what was happening! Lindsey says, “Mum got the whole twin thing, but I wondered what Jeff would think about his sister-in-law muscling in on his wife and his life. But he reassured me that it would be fine.”
She returned to Toron
