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Rogerson triplets toast the big 40!
Celebration: The triplets at 40, from left, Wendy and Michael Rogerson and Janet Bentham
The Rogerson triplets have always had a special bond...
Born in unexpected circumstances, they have made headlines in the Evening Post throughout their lives.
Wendy, Michael and Janet featured as newborns alongside their shocked parents – who were only expecting one child – in 1973.
Then they were pictured raising a glass as smiling 21 year olds in 1994.
Now the threesome have been reunited for yet another landmark occasion – as they toasted their 40th birthdays with a big family party at Leyland and Farington Social Club.
The triplets’ birth two months premature on March 10, 1973, caused quite a stir, especially as parents Irene and Tony of Stanley Avenue, Farington, were only expecting one child.
Dad Tony, 75, a retired Leyland Motors electrician, said: “It was a bit of a shock when the hospital called me and said there were three babies.
“In those days you didn’t have scans, you were given an X-Ray, and when Irene’s was done, the nurse said she must have moved because it was all blurred. We didn’t know it would have shown three.
“At the time, I didn’t know how we were going to cope, but we just had to – and we did.”
Because the babies were premature and small, they were kept in incubators in hospital for weeks until they all reached a weight of 5lb 8oz.
When they eventually got home and met older brother Mark, 42, and older sister Carol, 44, it soon became a war of the sexes.
Tony said: “I built them a big playpen measuring 4ft by 6ft that almost took up the whole living room, and they used to batter one another in it.
“The girls ganged up on Michael, the poor lad!”
Wendy, a worker for the Royal Mail and eldest of the three by just 15 minutes, said: “Being a twin didn’t seem strange to us, it was the only thing we knew so it was normal.
“We did have to share a few things though, like toys.”
The triplets went to school together, first attending St Catherine’s Primary School in Farington, and then Leyland St Mary’s High School.
Michael, who works as a sound operator on the West End production of War Horse, said: “I used to think that it was strange that the other children in my class didn’t have their brothers and sisters in the same class.”
Janet, who now has husband Andrew’s surname of Bentham, and works for Lancashire County Council, said: “We’ve always been close and that’s never changed even though Michael lives in London and we only see him once or twice a year.”
But she added: “We’ve never experienced any of the strange phenomena that other twins and triplets do, such as feeling each other’s pain.”
Her husband Andrew said: “When you’re married to a triplet you have to be very diplomatic and you’ve got to make sure that you’ve got your glasses on!”
Despite the celebrations, the triplets, who, apart from Michael, still live in Farington, said that their birthday, which this year fell on Mother’s Day, was tinged with sadness following the death of their mum 20 years ago.
Janet said: “She was a super mum who did everything for us.
“We’re absolutely gutted she couldn’t be here to see us now.”
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Saturday 18 May 2013
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