Elon Musk, the tech genius entrepreneur, recently stated that one of the greatest challenges facing this country is the replacement of our population.
For the first time in recent history, the birth rate is not replenishing the population.
I suppose this was a good analysis for Musk to make since he is the father of 10 children with wives and liaisons. Two sets of twins are among his 10 children. He is certainly doing his part to meet the population challenge.
Of course, there is no question that he can well support these children, but one would have to wonder about the amount of time he would have to spend with his children. He is a busy man for sure.
Parents of twins can take a “gold star” for their positive contribution to our country’s demographic issue. “Bonus babies” are great! Just ask my friend, Lisa Austin O’Neal.
Lisa has a twin brother, Steven Austin, and her father, Jerry “Zero” Austin, is a twin as well as was her great-grandmother. Lisa, herself, and her husband,Matthew, are also the proud parents of two-and-a-half-year-old twin girls, Piper and Nora.
I believe this family could be in the Guinness Book of World Records for having four sets of fraternal twins out of five generations.
Lisa’s twin girls are also “Rainbow Babies,” a term used for babies born after the loss of a previous baby. I recently told Lisa that it had to be an advantage to be a twin to perhaps be better able to parent twins. She replied that the big difference between being a twin to a brother herself and having twin girls is that buying in “twos” is a must. That was not the situation growing up with her brother, she said.
“It’s funny how many people will remark to me about the resemblance or lack of resemblance to my twin brother,” Lisa said. Many people fail to realize that fraternal twins are like ordinary siblings; whereas, identical twins are of the same sex and, for the most part, genetically the same and more often than not have a closer bond than fraternal twins.
I always enjoy visiting with Lisa. I have known her since she was a pre-teen and riding her bike through the neighborhood with friends Georgie Bolger and Bonnie Stovall. Just do not see kids riding their bikes together like I used to…The girls would see my pre-schoolers outside and did me a great favor of entertaining them while I caught up with Saturday morning chores inside the house.
Lisa is now the clinical office coordinator at Richmond County Hospice and she is always gracious and kind to bring by tickets for the Dancing with the Stars annual hospice fundraiser. DWTS is being held Saturday, Sept. 10 at Cole Auditorium…always a great buffet and show. Well worth the price of a ticket.
Helen Cox is a former journalist and educator in Richmond County.
