Twins from Louisiana who grew up in foster care are giving back to their community and serving as a source of inspiration for locals. Cherry and Sherry Wilmore from the city of Houma are known as “everybody’s favorite twins,” according to CBS News.
The twins spent 12 years living with two foster families from the ages of 6 to 18.
“We had foster parents, the McMahons — Mama Anna and Daddy Albert — and they were so loving to us. We didn’t realize we were in foster care until we left their home at 10,” they said in an interview with CBS News.
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The Wilmore sisters were never adopted and later realized how lucky they were to have been raised in loving homes through the foster care system.
“Six-year-old Sherry and Cherry didn’t see this. The ones who were left on the steps and even the ones who were not adopted,” Sherry said. “So this is, it’s a lot to take in, but it shows you that even when you felt forgotten, you’re not really forgotten.”
When they were 10, they were separated for a year. The twins then found out that a psychologist had tried to keep them apart.
“We had a psychologist who wrote ‘Cherry and Sherry Wilmore are a danger to society and they need to be institutionalized for the remainder of their life,’” they said. “We were nine because they said we fed off each other in the not productive way.”
This experience never left them, but they credit their foster parents for reuniting them.
“She (Wallace) said, ‘Oh no, we can’t separate twins. They need family. They need structure. They just need structure and discipline and they’ll be OK,’” Cherry said, referring to their foster mother Louise Navy Wallace. “It stuck with us for the rest of our lives.”
The Wilmore twins are now 40 years old and they have become pillars in their community. They launched a nonprofit organization called CHeriSH Times Two, which donates laptops to foster care children heading to college.
“I love them both dearly,” Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Tim Soignet told CBS News. “And I’m not afraid to tell them I love them every day I talk to them and I’m very blessed that they’re part of our community.”
The twins want people to know that they don’t have to go through anything in life alone.
“Sometimes the people you have to look forward to working with, may not be your family, family. It may not be biologically but find those people ’cause they’ll definitely be your family,” they said.
