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Their whole lives, they’ve shared everything – clothes, toys, friends and often a bed. From the moment they came into the world, quite literally joined at the hip, Abbey and Sarah Hose have been intimately and deeply bonded.
But newly 18, with their whole lives stretched out before them, New Zealand’s beloved conjoined twins are facing the reality that they may separate one day soon.
Baker Sarah (left) may be first to leave the nest, while Abbey continues with her studies.
“My dream is to live in Queenstown,” reveals Sarah, who is currently working in a café in the girls’ hometown of Rotorua. “I won a baking competition at school last year and the prize was a trip away with some other winners from around the area. We got to go to Queenstown and I loved it so much, I didn’t want to come back! It was the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”
An accomplished baker who promotes her creations via her “Sarah’s Cake Bar” Facebook page and hopes to study patisserie one day, she left John Paul College after securing an apprenticeship in the industry she loves. She’s since moved on and is happy combining her first full-time job as a barista with making custom cakes for clients.
“It’s great working in a busy café environment and having the cake business on the side, where I get to be more creative,” enthuses Sarah. “I’d really love to have my own restaurant or cake shop in the future.”
Meanwhile, Abbey remains at school, studying statistics, biology and tourism, and works part-time on the checkout of her local New World. Although she says she has “no idea” what she wants to do when she finishes Year 13 in just a few months’ time, there’s a clear artistic streak.
She recently designed a striking tattoo for dad Callan, 49, depicting a roaring stag, a hawk and pōhutukawa flowers. It’s something that makes the New Zealand Police crime scene officer justifiably proud.
“We tell Abbey all the time how talented she is, but she doesn’t really believe it,” he says, hovering in the background of our interview.
Abbey’s also just bought herself a Holden Commodore and is looking forward to installing a body kit, but she’s quick to point out she’s not a girl racer. “I don’t do drifts or skids,” she laughs. “I just like having a big car and it’s what I learnt to drive in, so I feel more confident.”
“Well, I like my little Hyundai!” chips in Sarah.
Mum Melissa, 42 – who owns a local dairy products delivery franchise – says they’re a tight-knit unit and “daddy’s girls”, but both also enjoy the company of younger brother Blake, 12, possibly more than he does theirs!
At mum Melissa and dad Callan’s 2016 wedding.
“Abbey can be quite opinionated and knows her mind, while Sarah is like the second mum of the house and has a really strong work ethic – she’ll get that from me!” Melissa says with a wink.
“Sarah will make sure Blake’s in bed, chores are done and teeth are brushed on time, while Abbey’s definitely more laid-back, like Callan.”
Of course, there are always hiccups when raising teens. Melissa laughs, “You can never get Abbey out of bed – she’s always checking her hair – and Sarah shaved her whole eyebrow off in the shower once!” But the doting mum says her twins are happy, settled and flourishing.
For both parents, seeing their little girls become young women is a huge milestone. The twins were born connected at the pelvis, requiring complex and delicate surgery at just five months of age to separate them safely.
At the time, Melissa and Callan were told there was a 20% chance either one or both girls would die on the operating table, or be left permanently paralysed. Thankfully, under the expert guidance of Waikato surgeon Dr Askar Kukkady – who remains a close friend of the Hose family – neither scenario eventuated and the girls were successfully split during a marathon 22-hour surgery.
Mum Melissa holds her girls before their life-changing surgery.
The girls remember none of this, obviously, but they do have faint memories of the media attention that followed as they grew into healthy, active pre-schoolers.
“There was one time we had to throw roses at a camera on cue, then go and play with the chickens,” says Sarah, recalling the occasion when an Australian TV crew flew over to meet the twins. Sarah’s memory is of a Woman’s Day shoot “and a suitcase filled with clothes that we were allowed to wear for the photos”.
Despite the world’s interest, the girls had a normal childhood.
Although the sisters have had to endure more operations to correct minor issues that come as the result of separating two joined human beings, they’re totally unfazed by it. “We’re both healthy now,” asserts Abbey.
Sarah still wears a leg brace but brushes off any concerns as it’s something she barely notices. “I don’t even think about it,” she insists. “There was a time when I’d be embarrassed to try on shoes and reveal my brace, but it’s just part of life for me now.”
Both girls have boyfriends – Abbey’s been with Sam for two years and Sarah with Ryan for three months – and the boys are mates, which makes weekends easy.
Sarah and Ryan.
“Actually, me and Sarah have the same friend group in general,” tells Abbey. “We both play underwater hockey and netball, so we have our friends from sport and we also love shopping or going out for dinner together with our boyfriends.”
And they even got to attend the school ball together three weeks ago. Sarah gained special permission to return to John Paul College to be by her sister’s side – dressed in blue, while Abbey wore red.
Abbey and Sam.
It came just a couple of months after another special occasion – their joint 18th birthday party, which was held, in typically understated fashion, at home, with just a handful of friends “and a lot of noise”, notes Melissa.
But despite the easy-going, happy-go-lucky nature of this busy household, the past year has certainly held its challenges. Sarah was helping her mum clean one of her delivery trucks to ready it for sale when suddenly Melissa felt dizzy and collapsed. She had suffered a brain aneurysm.
“Abbey was pulled out of school camp to come to the hospital and I was there about a week,” Melissa says. “They inserted a coil to block the blood flow to the clot, but it’s been a slow recovery.”
Sarah was happy to step up and do her mum’s job for a few weeks until Melissa was able to get back behind a desk. “I did the rosters and the wages,” explains Sarah.
Melissa laughs, “And to this day, some of my guys will tell me, ‘Bring back Sarah – she was a way better boss!'”
But that wasn’t the end of the dramas – three weeks later, Callan was punched during a rugby game, suffering a concussion and memory loss.
“He didn’t know what year it was or who the prime minister was – nothing!” recalls Melissa. “It was distressing that the
kids saw him like that. He was pretty bad.”
Like they always do, though, the twins bounced back.
As they enter their 19th year and prepare for new experiences outside the family home, Melissa reflects on their amazing childhood.
“I’m super-proud of them,” she says. “When I look at how their lives started and what they’ve gone through, they’re just so unaffected by it all. They take every day as it comes, they set goals and conquer anything they want to. The years have certainly flown by.”
Callan quips, “Once they go, I’ll be the only one for Melissa to yell at!”
But Melissa is more contemplative. “I feel grateful that they’ll always have each other’s backs,” she tells. “I know that if something was going on with one of them, the other would have no hesitation in stepping in. They’re just really resilient girls.”
