Oct 12, 2022
Isabel and Anabel Stenzel, identical twins diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis as babies, faced a lifetime of ill health and the probability that they would die very young. They also faced numerous losses of friends who had the same disease. Very young, they began keeping a record of their hospital experiences, drawing pictures and writing what happened along the way. Ultimately as adults, they collaborated on a book, The Power of Two, and were featured in a documentary of the same name. As a result of lung transplants, their life expectancy improved. Then Anabel received another crushing diagnosis; cancer. Ultimately she died, not of the disease that had plagued her life, but of the cancer. How did that loss affect her twin? How does Isabel continue to exhibit the power of two, but as one? This deep loss, which she says is like no other, has deepened her perspective on loss, grief and the art of letting go.