 .The Case June and Jennifer Gibbons, later known as “The Silent Twins”, were born 11th April 1963 in Aden, Yemen. Growing up the twins had an inseparable bond. They went through absolutely everything together and were both very late to speaking; their main communication was through noises as they knew only around three or four words by the time they started school. The twins first started school in Devon after moving to the UK, where racism was a huge issue. Due to the twins barbadian background they were severely bullied, and quickly became very isolated because of this. The twins refused to speak to anyone (even their family), make eye contact with anyone, and seemed to create what could only be described as a “secret language”. That is, they would only speak to each other through very high pitched noises or very fast talking that only they could understand. This isolation carried through to the extent the twins refused to learn to read or write at school. Whilst this was concerning for the teachers, June and Jennifer’s parents believed it was nothing to worry about because they would grow out of it - they didn’t. The family moved again to Haverfordwest in Wales, where sadly the racism only worsened. The twins were bullied to such an extent that they were dismissed five minutes early every day from school so that they could get a head start on their journey home, because the bullying was so bad. As seen in many twins, June and Jennifer were extremely synchronised. If June fell off a horse, Jennifer would fall off a horse and vice versa. This level of synchrony was arguably beyond the “norm” for twins and this was hugely noticeable to John Reed, a man who came to the twins’ school for vaccinations. He described the twins behaviour as almost trance like. When he gave the girls their vaccinations neither of them even flinched; they just stood there, lifeless. The school nurse reported this behaviour as through her increasing interest in the twins she, and the rest of the teachers, had noticed a lot of unusual behaviour from the girls. This resulted in June and Jennifer being taken to Haverfordwest Withybush Hospital in February 1977 for examination, and then transferred to a boarding school called East Gate Special Education Centre. The girls were sent here with purposeful intentions of trying to create two separate identities, therefore whilst Jennifer remained at Eastgate, June was sent to St David’s Adolescent Unit 30 miles away. This decision was extremely detrimental to the twins well being. June and Jennifer literally became catatonic. They refused to eat, move or essentially do anything until they were reunited. On their sixteenth birthday the girls were finally reunited and were sent home. Here things did not improve at all. Despite being in the same house, June and Jennifer would never see their family. If they wanted to watch the television they would pass a note through the door to their family and then the family would have to leave the door ajar so that they could sit in the hallway and watch the tv through the door. To keep themselves occupied the girls wrote diaries about their lives and crime novels. They were extremely excited about this and decided to go self published, with huge aspirations of making it big. The response was very very limited and this had a huge effect on them. June and Jennifer began leaving their rooms but only ever to commit crimes, do drugs, or hurt each other. They turned to theft and arson because, as June wrote, “No friends. Nothing else to do. Nothing to fill the cold hour.” The girls were arrested for one instance of arson and were sent to a remand centre. They carried on writing their diaries, however the girls could not stand the sight of each other here. Their diary entries quickly escalated into multiple accounts about wanting to kill each other.   The twins hatred for each other kept growing and growing, until eventually they were sent to maximum security. Here, their behaviour became extremely unusual. One day June would starve herself whilst Jennifer would completely over indulge, and then the next day they would swap over. Eerily, even when the girls were at other ends of the hospital and therefore unable to see each other, they would often be found completely frozen in the exact same position as each other. One day when a journalist who visited often came to see the girls, Jennifer completely out of the blue said “I am going to have to die...because we have decided”. The journalist was understandably completely taken aback by this, however her best understanding was that the twins had decided that one of them would have to give up their life so that the other could begin to live a normal and free life. The twins had decided that this day would be the day they were transferred to another clinic. In March 1993 at the age of 31 June and Jennifer were transferred to the clinic. When they arrived Jennifer was completely unresponsive, and tragically passed away. This was exactly the day that the twins had planned for Jennifer to die, however results of the autopsy showed that Jennifer died from completely natural causes. There was absolutely no intervention from either of the girls; they decided on the date and through natural causes Jennifer actually did give up her life. On Jennifer’s headstone June had written a poem that read “We were once two, we two made one, we no more two, through life be one. Rest in peace”.
7 Comments
What is a Mandela Effect? The Mandela Effect earned its name from an incredible amount of people holding clear memories of Nelson Mandela passing away whilst incarcerated, to the point many can vividly recall a televised funeral. Why is this odd? Nelson Mandela was released from prison 11th February 1990; he died 5th December 2013. Therefore why do SO many people share memories of his death and funeral twenty three years prior? Every year more and more shared memories of events that never happened, or things that never existed, are being discovered. They call these Mandela Effects. There are many theories behind the cause of Mandela Effects, with many believing it is the result of a parallel universe or government cover-ups. Regardless of the cause, Mandela Effects can be truly fascinating. Therefore, I am going to be discussing my top 10 mind blowing Mandela Effects. Enjoy♡ 10. Looney Toons 90’s babies. If I was to tell you “Looney Toons” was actually spelt “Looney Tunes” would you believe me? I, along with many other people, certainly would not; however it turns out it has always been “Looney Tunes”. Not only do most people have clear memories of “Looney Toons”, but that spelling would make a lot more sense; toons = cartoons. Did we all remember the wrong spelling, or was there actually a change in reality? 9. Forrest Gump You don’t need to have seen Forrest Gump to know the iconic line “life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you’re gonna get”. However, it turns out none of us really know the line as the script actually says “life was like a box of chocolates”. Honestly, this line doesn’t even make sense to me; and with so many people reciting it so clearly as “is”, is it really possible that we all misheard it? 8. Barbie Girl - Aqua Aqua’s “Barbie Girl” is the song of many people’s childhoods; I am sure we have all heard it countless of times growing up so we would all know the words - “I’m a barbie girl in a barbie world” right? Wrong. The actual lyrics are “I’m a barbie girl in THE barbie world”. I have an insane memory for lyrics, yet never in my life have I sung, or heard anybody else sing, “THE barbie world” - yet if you listen to the original song you will realise that is the way it’s always been. What in “the’ world? 7. Monopoly Man I am sure almost everyone has fond (or perhaps not so fond) memories of playing Monopoly. Whilst the game itself truly divides families, the biggest divider is the debate about whether the Monopoly man had a monocle - which he did not. I would say there is no evidence to suggest he ever did, however the sheer amount of people who dressed up as the Monopoly man with a monocle blows my mind and says otherwise. What do you remember? 6. Mirror Mirror on the Wall This Mandela Effect will always blow my mind as Snow White is one of my all time favourite movies in the world. There is a famous scene in Snow White where the Evil Queen looks into the mirror on the wall and asks “Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” Except, she doesn’t say this at all. Instead, the Evil Queen has always said “Magic mirror on the wall”. I have honestly loved this film since I was about three years old and no matter how often I say the “new’ line out loud it just does not sound right to me in the slightest. Watch it here and let me know what you think. 5. Bare Necessities Again, as a huge Disney lover, I really struggle to accept this Mandela Effect. I want you to fill in the missing lyric from the Jungle Book’s “Bare Necessities” - “wherever I wander, wherever I roam, I couldn’t be ____ of my big home”. Did you say “fonder?” Probably, as does every lyric website or video I can find. However, when you listen back to the song it’s actually just “found”. I think this sounds SO odd and so very incomplete, yet after checking Youtube versions, Spotify versions, the lyric has always been “found”. 4. We are the Champions - Queen On the topic of “misremembered” lyrics, let’s discuss Queen’s “We are the Champions”. What do we all belt in the final chorus - “No time for losers cause we are the champions, of the world” right? Wrong! The song has never ended with “of the world”. You can listen to original versions, live versions and you will find they have NEVER ended the song with those lyrics. Yet so many of us sing them. In fact, I think it sounds so odd hearing the song without that ending, it ends so...abruptly. I must mention that Queen do in fact sing the words “of the world”, however it is in the middle and not at all where we all seem to sing it. Listen to it again and wait for the ending...it just feels wrong, right? 3. Sex in the City This is one of the most common mistakes people make, to the point google automatically redirects people searching for the wrong title. The show has never been called “Sex in the City” but in fact has always been “Sex and the City”. This particular Mandela Effect has a lot of “evidence” to suggest we all knew it as Sex in the City before; from merchandise to sitcom references, from award ceremonies to social media posts. I would really recommend watching these two videos as the amount of “Sex in the City” references is insane. 2. “Luke, I am your father” Even those who aren’t big fans of Star Wars know the iconic line where Darth Vader tells Luke Skywalker that he is his father. “Luke, I am your father” right? An astonishing amount of people recite the line that exact way, however if you watch back the clip here you will realise that line is never, and has never been, said. The actual line is “No, I am your father.” This line is nowhere near as catchy and it does not register right in a lot of people’s minds - including James Earl Jones, the actual actor who played Darth Vader himself!  1. “Woaaah, Mona Lisa”. (Can anybody else not read the words “Mona Lisa” without bursting into song?). And finally, The Mona Lisa. This painting by Leonardo da Vinci has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world". An amazing amount of people recall Mona Lisa to be somewhat emotionless; a very very slight smile in the corner of the mouth and nothing more than that. So what if I told you that Mona Lisa is actually smiling in every photo you will ever find of the painting now? The reason this Mandela Effect stands out to me so much is because the Mona Lisa was studied for DECADES for her “enigmatic smile” - the mystery of whether she is smiling or not. However looking at the painting as we see it now there is no doubt that she has a smile. If the Mona Lisa has always been smiling as much as she is in the photos we see today, why would this have been studied so profusely by professionals? Did the Mona Lisa really change right before our eyes? And that concludes my top 10 favourite Mandela Effects. I really hope you enjoyed this post. Whether these are Mandela Effects or simply mistaken memories, I think we can all agree it is fascinating how many of us share these vivid accounts of things that never really existed. Thank you so much for reading! I would love to hear your thoughts on Mandela Effects, and if there are any that particularly interest you please feel free to discuss them on the comments. coc0chanel xxx ♡ Happy New Year! ♡ I hope everyone has had a really lovely start to 2019. I decided to take a little step back from blogging/Instagram for the first few days of the new year, however I am back to share my blogging plans and aspirations for 2019...and what better way to discuss plans than over a piece of cake. Bakerdays very, very kindly sent me the most delicious letterbox cake personalised with my blog name and Mickey Mouse; the most appropriate design for this Disney loving blogger. What they perhaps didn’t know is that I have the biggest sweet tooth in the world, so they were sending their product to a TOUGH critic. However, being 100% honest, it tasted absolutely delicious. Whilst “bakerdays” also offer small, medium and large cakes, I am most excited about their letterbox cakes which is what they sent to me. Despite being handled by postal services, the cake was perfectly fresh with absolutely no damage to the product. The cake was beautifully designed and arrived in a lovely tin that I will no doubt be re-using. There are endless design options on their website; and if there isn’t one that takes your fancy there is also the option to personalise your cake just the way you like it. I tried the traditional sponge cake however “bakerdays” also offer chocolate chip, lemon drizzle, fruit, gluten wheat free and dairy free options. The cake was light, very tasty and had exactly the right amount of icing. Speaking specifically about the letterbox size, I really think if you are wishing to celebrate somebody’s special day but maybe can’t be with them, sending a “bakerdays” cake would be the loveliest gift. You can get a photo cake at https://www.bakerdays.com/birthday-cakes/photo-cakes, or of course feel free to browse their website to see their complete range of fantastic cakes. And now, as I cut myself my second slice of the evening, I will take you through my blogging plans and aspirations for 2019... ♡ Increasing posts In 2019 I am committing to posting more frequent blog posts. I aim to post an unsolved mystery fortnightly, with other posts in between cases. I would love to commit to a blogging schedule however due to the sheer amount of research behind my unsolved mystery posts I feel I need to trial this when I am back at university before making any promises..but it is certainly on my mind. ♡ Expanding content I describe coc0chanelblogs as an “unsolved mysteries & lifestyle” blog and this will not be changing. However my favourite posts to write are unsolved mysteries as I have such a huge interest in them so I will be expanding my content to more of my biggest interests; including conspiracy theories, paranormal activity and general mysterious phenomena. For those who are not as interested in these areas I can assure you lifestyle and creativity will still be very much incorporated into my blog. I hope whoever visits my blog can leave feeling inspired by something in some way. ♡ Social media engagement I started my blogging Instagram (@coc0chanelblogs) towards the end of 2018 and it was the best decision. I absolutely love connecting with other bloggers and feeling like a part of the blogging community, so in 2019 I am definitely going to be dedicating time to Instagram engagement. I will also dedicate my time to understanding the beauty of Pinterest - this is a very new platform to me so any tips would be really appreciated. Ultimately, I adore new year and I cannot wait to see where coc0chanelblogs goes in 2019. I am living this year with a kind heart, a fierce mind and a brave spirit...and a tummy filled with cake. Thank you so much for reading! I would love to hear about your aspirations for 2019 and any thoughts or feedback about the plans I have for my blog. I wish you all a very happy new year.
coc0chanel xxx P.s If anybody has any Instagrams and/or Pinterests that need some loving please do feel free to leave links below! ♡ |
Author20 year old Psychology student, running a blog to satisfy my love for writing and debating. Archives
August 2019
Categories |
RSS Feed