Beaufort family’s lesson after twin brothers die in same week: Don’t wait to reconcile

Beaufort resident Todd Stowe received a text from his father, Garry, in early September telling him to expect his uncle — Garry’s twin brother Larry — to pass away sometime soon from complications of diabetes.

So when Todd received a call from his sister on Sept. 25, he assumed it was to let him know about his uncle.

Instead, she called to tell him their father had collapsed from a heart attack and wasn’t going to make it.

Four days after that funeral, another call came to say Uncle Larry had passed, so Todd was back on the road out of Beaufort, not as shocked as he had been the previous week but still in a state of disbelief.

It’s confusing and unlikely, but it’s correct. Twin brothers Garry and Larry Stowe, of Rome, Georgia, came into the world together and left only seven days apart.

The chances of that happening?

It’s certainly not without precedent, as there are documented cases like that of the twin sisters in Tennessee who both died on Christmas day in 2014, just two hours apart. There is also the case of twin brothers Julius and Ludwig Pieper, both of whom perished during WWII when their boat sank. Of course, the chances of them dying together was already high as they served on the same ship.

The case of the Stowe brothers, however different, is still rare.

It was only recently, for instance, that the brothers began speaking to each other again.

Years had passed without much contact, which Todd attributes to them both being so stubbornly alike.

“They were both the types to put a mat over the carpet in a car, then put another piece of carpet over the mat,” said Todd.

They both served in the military during the Vietnam era — in different branches — and were both avid hunters and fishermen. Todd recalled fishing with his uncle and his dad in his formative years.

“I always said my dad would sell my mom before he’d sell his boat,” he joked.

Before all that, of course, they enjoyed the benefits of being close in identity. Both were linemen on their high school football teams, though Larry was a bit heavier then than Garry.

One day, as Garry left a store, the shopkeeper yelled after him, “Looking good with the weight loss, Larry!”

No matter what drove them apart, they were always tied genetically, and their reconciliation came when ill health befell them both.

“I think they realized that if they didn’t make up now, they weren’t going to have a chance to later,” said Todd.

That’s a lesson Todd will undoubtedly impart to his own two children, even if they are six years apart in age.

Another is that the road from Beaufort to Rome goes both ways.

Todd and his wife, Patsy, hadn’t had much chance to discuss the possibility of making room in their house for his mother to visit more often before they were also considering expanding the space to include his aunt as well.

In a time when you lose your father and your uncle in the same week, you might begin to appreciate the normalcy more than the randomness of life.

The recently widowed sisters-in-law might even find a Lowcountry town as welcoming of them as it was of Todd when he came here as a teacher at Beaufort High over 20 years ago.

Thankfully, that’s still not a rarity in this world.