Joefred and Ralphred Gregory died at Meerut’s Anand Hospital last week.
Joefred and Ralphred Gregory were born in 1997, just three minutes apart.
Meerut:
Joefred and Ralphred Gregory were born on April 23, 1997. The identical twins celebrated their 24th birthday this April and both caught Covid a day later. They died last week in a hospital in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, just hours apart.
On May 13, their parents Gregory Raymond and Soja Raphael, both teachers in Meerut, learnt from Anand hospital that Joefred had died of Covid. Their world collapsed around them.
Ralphred, in the same hospital, called his mother and asked about his twin. Joefred had to be moved to a hospital in Delhi, he was told. “Ma, you are lying,” he said, according to the Times of India. He died the next day.
The death of the twins is among the most crushing stories to come out of India’s devastating Covid second wave that has seen many dying from oxygen shortage.
The brothers, born three minutes apart, did most things together. Both 6 feet tall, they went to college together and completed their B Tech in Coimbatore. Joefred worked in Accenture and Ralphred worked with Hyundai Mubis Company. They had plans to go abroad.
According to the Indian Express, Joefred had been staying in Meerut, working from home, and Ralphred had come on leave from his Hyderabad office due to an arm injury. They have an older brother.
The twins developed fever just after their birthday. For days, the family treated them at home, bought an oxymetre and gave them medication. As their condition worsened, they were admitted to hospital on May 1.
On May 10, both tested negative for Covid and the family was overjoyed. “Three days later, our world came crashing… When Joefred died, I had a sixth sense that Ralphred would not make it. Simply because they were inseparable,” Mr Raphael told the Indian Express.
“Our family is broken. Covid took away my sons who had never harmed anyone in their entire lives,” Mr Raphael said.