Translated material
Source of the Twins
We advise all expectant mothers who dream of twins to go to the Transcarpathian village of Velyka Kopanya, fall at the local Chorgiv spring and drink its magical water. The result will not be long in coming - they will have twins.
Miracle water even works on chickens
Velyka Kopanya has long been called the capital of the twins and occupies an honorable place in the Book of Records of Ukraine. There are more than a thousand households and about three and a half thousand residents, with 60 pairs of twins and twins, plus a few more on the way.
The first pair of twins - two sons - were born in Velikaya Copan in 1941 to Martha and Ivan Cheypesha. Two years later, sisters Maria and Anna were born. (Maria Andreevna still lives in the village and is raising six grandchildren - three pairs of twins.) Most of the twins were born in Velikaya Kopan in the 90s. 2004 also turned out to be a fruitful year, when in June alone the village was replenished with three pairs of twins.
Local residents do not even doubt that the cause of such an unusual anomaly is the healing water from their mountain spring Chorgiv.
“This water is unique,” assures the chairman of the village council Vasily Pilip. – Behind the Kopansky ridge, geologists found a large underground lake that feeds our springs. As it turned out, water from one source helps against eye diseases, and from another it promotes the birth of twins. Our craftsmen built storage tanks in the mountains, from which water now flows directly into houses through pipes.
They drink it and cook with it, because it is tasty and does not leave sediment, no matter how long it sits in the jars. People come to us thousands of kilometers to get this healing water!
As an example, Vasily Ivanovich told about one woman from their regional center Vinogradov, who could not get pregnant. Then she began to visit the miracle source day after day and soon gave birth to two beautiful twins.
By the way, extraordinary water also affects animals. According to the village head, only since the beginning of this year, seven pairs of calves have been born in the village. And the fact that local chickens regularly lay eggs with two yolks has not surprised anyone here for a long time.
How twins woo twins
Irma Chick and Tanya Palchey are twins, like two peas in a pod. From childhood to this day, they always dress the same. They also claim that once upon a time my father constantly forced my mother to draw healing water from the Chorgiv spring. Nowadays the sisters live next door and visit each other every day. There is such a strong connection between them that when one gets sick, the other feels it and immediately runs to help.
The women remember how many years ago two twin boys from a neighboring village heard about them and decided to woo them. Tanya liked the brothers, but Irma already had a fiancé at that time, so she refused. Then, out of solidarity with her sister, Tatyana also turned away. Having learned that they were trying to woo his girlfriend, Irma’s fiancé went AWOL from the army and immediately proposed to her. Three years after their wedding, sister Tanya accidentally met on the train one of those twins who came to woo them - he worked as a conductor. The guy admitted that all these years he could not forget his sisters, they were so deeply ingrained in his heart. And when the twin risked wooing a second time, Tatyana was already more accommodating.
At the wedding, both brothers sat next to each other and wore identical suits. Tanya recalls that she could only distinguish her husband by the bouquet on his jacket. And her friend from a neighboring village, who was not at all aware that Tatiana’s husband was one of twins, told her at the end of the wedding: “You know, your husband always saw double in my eyes. Wow, you have good moonshine in Copan!”
I gave birth at my own risk
Svetlana Shandruk lost her second child at an advanced stage of pregnancy, and doctors forbade her to become pregnant again. But the woman did not listen to them, she really wanted a second child. When she was told at the ultrasound that there would be twins, she didn’t even know whether to cry or rejoice - she simply would not have survived the loss of two children at once.
Svetlana spent her entire pregnancy in hospital care. As a result, Yura and Sveta were born.
According to my mother, brother and sister are very different. Yura is active and restless, while Sveta is calm and reasonable. The twins also have different relationships with their older brother. Yura is very jealous of his older brother and sister and therefore constantly tries to quarrel between them.
“For Yura, I’m the only authority; he doesn’t recognize anyone else,” says his mother. - He has blue eyes and an angelic face, he will look at the teacher in the kindergarten with his little eyes - and she doesn’t have enough strength to reprimand him...
Meanwhile, in order to feed his large family, the father of the family constantly disappears to work abroad. Almost all men in Transcarpathia do this, because you won’t find work in the village during the day. Therefore, women in Velikaya Copan are essentially forced to raise children themselves.
Look, there will be triplets!
On top of everything else, there is a catastrophic shortage of places in the Velikaya Kopan kindergarten.
“We had to turn away three pairs of twins this year; they can’t take everyone who wants them,” complains Vasily Pilip, “We urgently need to build another kindergarten.” The place for it has already been selected, all that remains is to get money for construction.
Teachers at Velikokopansky Secondary School have their own headaches. According to director Olga Sidak, who has been working here for almost a quarter of a century, today there are as many as 16 pairs of twins and twins studying at the school. They could easily become a separate class.
“Children are children, they sometimes try to be cunning,” Olga Mikhailovna smiles. “They are seated at different desks, but they still change places and are responsible for each other. So you have to ask both twins for the task. How could it be otherwise, because there are couples that even their relatives cannot always distinguish!
As if to confirm the director’s words, absolutely identical twins Vanya and Misha Fogorosh run up to us. With one voice, they swear that in their lives they have never used their similarity to fool their favorite teachers. Moreover, Vanya just recently lost her upper baby tooth, and Misha is missing the lower one, and now even an amateur can easily distinguish them. And before that - yes, only mom.
Yura and Vanya Khimentsov are also practically indistinguishable, not only for teachers, but even for their own sister. But the kind mother of Ivanka and Yulia Chorba specially puts different earrings on her daughters for school, which makes the work of local teachers much easier.
“By the way, the Chorba family is the largest in our village,” comments Vasily Pilip, “and the mother herself is one of twins.” Three of her ten children also had twins. But for some reason we haven’t had triplets yet. Although recently, from our Kopan lad in the Kyiv region, his wife gave birth to triplets...
Well, as they say, a good start is half the battle!