Life is twice as sweet for these 90-year-old twins

There were no sonograms in 1933. So one could imagine Nunziata Pierro’s surprise when, 15 minutes after giving birth to her son, there were suddenly two bundles of joy to hold. Those twins — Giuseppe “Joe” and Nicola “Nick” Pierro — celebrated their 90th birthday, on Dec. 27, in East Rockaway.

Between the two of them exists 180 years of life, 130 years of marriage, nine grandchildren and four — soon to be five — great grandchildren. The pair continues to show that brotherhood is no different whether you’re 19 or 90.

“They’re always talking to each other, they’re always busting each other’s chops,” Nancy Barbaro, Nick’s daughter, said with a laugh. “They’re sitting watching TV and my Uncle Joe will close his eyes, and my father will go ‘Joe! What are you closing your eyes for?’ and he’ll yell at my father, ‘well you’re not talking!’ And they go back and forth.”

Not many people these days have experienced growing up in 1930s New York — so it’s no wonder that the brothers remain close and continue to rely on each other in their old age.

“Their younger years, they had a very rough life,” Barbaro said. “They really did well for themselves, coming up from such a lousy childhood.”

Joe’s son, also named Nick, detailed his father’s and uncle’s childhoods in a birthday toast to them. The boys — and their seven sisters — were not allowed to speak English at home. However, in the outside world, the brothers dropped their Italian names and began going by “Nick” and “Joe” to avoid anti-Italian prejudice, which was rampant at the time.

Daily life in New York looked different during the Pierro brothers’ childhoods. The Empire State building was brand-new. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had just been elected president. Families were rocked by the Great Depression. To bathe, Nick and Joe had to walk a block away armed with nothing but a towel, even in the dead of winter.

The Korean War broke out when the boys were not yet 18. Nick enlisted with the Navy, while Joe was drafted into the Army. It was the first time either boy had spent a night away from home — but for the next four years, they traveled the world. Nick crossed the equator; he was on a ship representing the United States during Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953, and did the same for Grace Kelly’s wedding to Prince Rainier in 1956. Joe visited family in Bari, Italy and then traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark.

After the brothers were both honorably discharged in 1956, they each returned home and endeavored on a new adventure — starting families.

Nick had spent his years in the Navy writing back and forth with his love Antoinette, affectionately known as “Dodo.” They married upon Nick’s return from the military. Joe became engaged to his love Theresa in 1958, and the couple married the next year.

Joe and Theresa raised their family in Howard Beach, while Nick and Antoinette moved to East Rockaway in the ‘60s.

“I was going out with his daughter when I was only 20, and I was scared as (crap) of him,” Joe Barbaro, Nancy’s husband, said. “He was a big guy, a sanitation worker — but he was always a sweetheart.”

Whenever all the cousins get together, Joe Barbaro said, they’re entertained by the endless similarities between their twin fathers.

“They’ll say ‘Oh yeah, my father does that too,’ ‘Yep, that’s just like my father,’ ‘Look, he’s doing the same thing,’” Barbaro said. “They’re so much alike, even at this age they really kind of do the same thing.”

Nick and Joe “really are one of a kind,” he added.

The biggest lesson Joe and Nick have imparted on their children, their grandchildren, and their great grandchildren is the importance of family, Nancy said.

“We’re a very close family, and I think they instilled that in us,” she said, adding that the large family often comes together for Italian dinners on Sundays. Nick and Joe talk to each other every week on the phone, and the families get together as often as possible. But the twins’ birthday — especially this milestone 90th — is extra special.

“They were sitting at their party and they both just kept saying ‘Wow, this is so great,’” Nancy said. “They were just so happy, and I think that’s what’s important.

“A lot of older people, I think they need to feel the love. Show how much they’re appreciated.”