Features

The Bernard sisters - triple the fun

RASBERT TURNER,STAR Writer

The Bernard triplets. - tributed

spanish town

IT WAS A triple blessing on June 8 and 9 in 1965 when Glasmy Bernard gave birth to triplets in the Spanish Town Hospital, St. Catherine. Looking back 40 years later, she is still basking in the glory.

When THE WEEKEND STAR visited the triplets in Old Harbour Bay, St. Catherine, if they had not dressed differently it would be hard to decipher them due to their striking resemblance.

"Yuh se how dem look alike," remarked a proud looking Glasmy, as she pointed to Joan, Jean and Jennifer Bernard, whom she still calls her babies.

Joan, said to be the eldest of the triplets, is seen as the more reserved of the three. "I don't do much talking," she remarked, "but Jean is always the fighter and even at school she would fight for the money."

All through this Jennifer sat and smiled mischievously. They all related a story to THE WEEKEND STAR when one went and credited bananas from a lady who in the end did not get paid, as she could not tell them apart so could not point out who had credited the bananas.

Difficult to tell apart

n while going to the Old Harbour High School (formerly secondary) their teachers found it difficult to tell them apart. "For them to find out who was who, they have to call all three of us and then we would tell them," Joan said.

Mrs. Bernard told THE WEEKEND STAR that when the children were younger she had great difficulty in identifying them. "When I was taking them to the doctor for check-up I had to tie a ribbon on each one of them arm to identify them."

She said that when they were born the government, at the time, had wanted to take one of the girls. This was refused as her love for her children could not allow them to be taken away and moreover her husband, Clifton, would not hear of it.

All three women told THE WEEKEND STAR that several sets of twins are in the Bernard family. However, to the best of their knowledge, they are the first sets of triplets.

They also told THE WEEKEND STAR that they continue to share each other's feelings, because if one gets hurt the other two feels it and it is for this reason why they remain close.

"Even now that we big, if yuh hurt any of us we can feel it from a distance and our love grow stronger by this bond," remarked Jennifer.

As for Jennifer and Jean, they are both self-employed. However, Joan is employed to the Old Harbour High School as an ancillary worker.

The Bernards expressed joy at their triplets, citing that Joan, who was the heaviest of them, weighed 2 1/2 pound when she was born and the others weighed two pounds each.

The sisters told THE WEEKEND STAR that it is one of God's greatest miracles to be a triplet. They also have children of their own, but none of them triplets -at least not yet.