CART WALDMAN
Special to the Jewish News

Take

A cast of characters rolled into two
prepares for bat mitzvah.

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Jenny and Becca today.... and
Becca andJenny at age 4

lir e started out in two separate cribs," Jenny Weiss says.
But now we wouldn't trade sharing a room for
the world," pipes up Becca.
Jenny and Becca Weiss are identical twins. They
were a team, right from the start. "It's like they are attached at the
heart," says their mother Cheryl. "They are the best of friends, and
always have been."
Becca and Jenny were born the same minute via Cesarean sec-
tion. They cut their first teeth and began walking on the same day.
The twins have tap danced together since age 4, are two pounds
apart in weight, have shared the same bunk at Camp Maas in
Ortonville for four years and have switched classes every April
Fool's Day since first grade to trick their teachers.
They share the same friends in the Warner Middle School band
in Farmington Hills and both play the flute.
While they are similar in so many ways, their personalities are
different."We look alike, but I'mthe cuter one," says Jenny, who
wears black, flared, hip-hugging pants and floral patterns, as
opposed to her sister's blue jeans and simpler approach to dressing.
Becca describes Jenny as the comedian, and Jenny calls Becca
the social planner. Watching these two vivacious preteens gab,
dance around the house like funky soul sisters, make friendship
bracelets and joke with their mother is more amusing than watch-
ing a sitcom.
One starts a sentence, and the other one finishes it. And instead
of getting irate with each other, they look at each other and laugh.
Becca and Jenny love to have fun. But if they are missing one
thing in their life as they prepare for their b'not mitzvah, it is their
dad. In 1995, Al Weiss was diagnosed with Shy Drager syndrome,
a severe degenerative disorder of the nervous system for which
there is no cure. As his care quickly became overwhelming, hospice
aides moved into the Weiss home in Farmington Hills, and stayed
nearly a year. For the twins and Cheryl, the aides and nurses
became family. The young girls would often ask, "Is hospice still
going to come after Daddy dies?"
In late June of 1996, Al asked Cheryl to go out and buy a ferret
for the girls, the pet they had been wanting for months. He
thought it would be a distraction from what was happening at
home. The next day, at 9 years old, the Weiss twins faced the reali-
ty that their father had died.
"The girls have matured into loving and caring young ladies,"
say their bubbie and zayde, Ilene and David Katz of Farmington
Hills, who see the twins at least four times a week.
"They love old people and young children," the Katzes say.
"Besides being energetic and funny, it is their best trait."
Now, 3'/2 years after their father's death, Jenny and Becca
describe their dad as athletic, and mom as artistic.
Jenny tells Becca that when she looks into her eyes, she
sees their daddy. And together they express how much they
admire their mom, 'and say that she means the world to
them. It is this type of genuine, candid chatting that keeps
the relationships between the Weiss girls healthy and the air
in their home happy and full of life.
On May 6, they will devote a memory candle to their
dad, as they share the Maftir and Haftorah at their b'not
mitzvah at Congregation Shaarey Zedek.
They will be on the bima, surrounded by friends, family
and the unforgotten hospice team that helped them
through their father's death. III

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