At 95, twins Esther and George McLachlin are reunited at an Ottawa Valley residence. The twins grew up in Arnprior with their parents, Mae and Norman McLachlin, and their younger siblings Norman E., Peter and Maryellen. They chuckle when telling the story of their parents’ courtship. Their mother was the secretary in the office where Norman worked as an accountant for McLachlin Bros. He was 20 years her senior and a bachelor, but she caught his eye and the two were married in 1929. It was a quick introduction to a busy family life when the twins were born in 1930, followed by three more children during the next decade.
The family lived in a large brick home at “the Corners” on Elgin Street, with farmland that encompassed woodsheds, a barn and several cows. The twins remember taking turns churning butter in the basement as their father loved to have a slice of fresh bread with butter at the end of each meal. They recall their mother baking cookies to have when “company called” and how she hid them in the washing machine so they would not be devoured all at once by the children.
There were apple trees on the Elgin Street property and their father had a vegetable garden, both put to good use during the Depression years. (Garden-fresh or not, though, Esther’s asparagus and George’s peas often got hidden on the ledge under their kitchen table.)
Another memory that surfaces often is the time the young twins filled a basket with dandelions and took it to the corner store where some local men sat outside and visited. They offered their dandelions for sale (for making wine). The men obliged and the twins spent their earnings on huge ice cream cones.
In their teen years, they were allowed to host parties at their house, playing records and dancing. Esther taught swimming lessons at the local beach and George worked caretaking and landscaping at the cemetery up the hill. It was a difficult time for all when their brother Norman E. passed away of leukaemia at age 16.
As a young adult George left the Valley and settled in the Sarnia area where he worked, married his sweetheart Marie Leneve and raised two daughters. Esther remained in the Valley and moved to Renfrew where she married Clair Seeley and raised four children.
Over the decades that followed, when they lived hours away from each other, the twins remained close. There was, and still is, an undeniable bond and “sixth sense” that they share. Through the many changes in their lives—the loss of their parents, the passing of their siblings and, eventually, the loss of their spouses—they supported each other with weekly phone calls. Always just a phone call away.
Then in December 2024, well into their decade as nonagenarians, George returned to the Ottawa Valley and to Esther. After 70-plus years spent in different parts of the province they are now side by side in Renfrew living in the same residence. In April they celebrated their 95th birthday, surrounded by loving family members. They are well and truly home together.
As told by Esther and George to their children.
