A (big) Family Affair As Knysna Quins Celebrate Their 21st
Knysna‘s quintuplets are turning 21 today and the family is celebrating the event with about 50 guests at a Mossel Bay hotel at the weekend
Friday, however, the quins – Carol-Anne, Joedene, Joe, Verona and Danie Terblanche – are each to attend separate parties with their friends.
This would seem to be typical of the siblings, who, as close as they are to one another, insist they have very different likes and dislikes.
The quintuplets‘ older brother by less than two years, De-Jay, summed up what it was like to be part of such an unusual family.
“It‘s awesome. It was hard when we were younger, but now its great,” he said yesterday.
“I don‘t think anyone can be as blessed as I am. It‘s nice to have so many people to depend on and to help you through stuff.”
Their father, Demerius, said Carol-Anne had taken the leading role when the quins were younger.
“She was basically the action person. They‘d ask her to ask me, but that changed in the last years of school,” he said.
Carol-Anne said there had never been a dull moment growing up.
“There‘s always someone around, and having friends on the same level makes things easier and better,” she said.
Verona said although she had gone through a stage of thinking about being a single child, she now felt it was nice to be one of many.
“My biggest thing is advice. I always need advice from someone,” Joedene piped up.
During the interview at their spacious family home in Knysna, the siblings often looked at one another before answering and there seemed to be general agreement about most things.
When Carol-Anne and Joedene were asked if they had the same taste in boyfriends, they said definitely not. The quins also have very different tastes in clothing and music.
From the age of 12, after their mother died, the quins were looked after by their father and domestic worker Maureen, whom they call Nana.
Terblanche said he had decided not to remarry until the children completed high school. He felt he would save a lot of frustration and difficulty that way.
A year after the quins finished school, Terblanche remarried.
“I‘m still on honeymoon,” he said, sitting close to wife Louida, who has two grown-up children of her own.
De-Jay, a rugby player, returned recently from playing in Ireland for eight months.
Carol-Anne is a circuit instructor at a gym.
Joedene is a beautician, Joe a site manager in the building industry, and Verona is an assistant accountant.
Danie is working at a holiday resort in England and will not be joining his fellow quins, with whom he is in constant contact, for this milestone birthday celebration.
By Katherine Wilkinson
www.theherald.co.za
