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Show HILLTOP TIMES TIMES July 5, 2007 "I think that is part that makes it good being part of the military family. If we weren't, I don't think we would have that kind of support other than family." ANNA CLARK on all the help they've gotten from other base families TWINS From page 1 tors told us, 'this is as good as you can hope for.' " Besides the fact they were conjoined, Allyson and Avery arrived as healthy as any other babies. T\vo months after they were born, the Clark family was transferred to Hill Air Force Base, from Edwards AFB, Calif. For Terry Clark, a 388th Fighter Wing F-16 crew chief, the assignment was due in part to the fact that the base is close to Primary Children's Medical Center. "This was pretty much our only option — and it's a really good option," he said. The Clarks have found being in the Air Force also has other perks. Although they only recently moved to Utah, they found they could turn to their neighbors on base. This has been a hectic time for the Clarks, driving back and forth to Salt Lake every couple of days. They have found not only friends, but also nearby baby sitters. "I think that is part that makes it good being part of the military family," Anna Clark said. "If we weren't, I don't think we would have that kind of support other than family." While waiting for the surgery, it was life as usual — as usual as it can be with five girls under the age of 10. Six-yearold, Riley, would often tell strangers that her sisters were "stuck at the butt." "They don't get the whole conjoined thing," Anna Clark said. "They seem to think all twins come this way. We happened to see twins while ice skating and our 4-year-old asked them, "When did you get separated?" On the day of the separation surgery, the family just started getting comfortable for what they were told was going to be a six- or seven-hour wait, when they got a call that the surgeons were almost done, Kerry Clark said. The surgery they had waited many months for, took only a little more than an hour. "When they brought them out, they were in two separate beds," Kerry Clark said. "It was amazingly fast." The stay in the hospital after the surgery was also shorter than expected. Kerry Clark said that five minutes after a news conference — showing the twins separate for the first time — the doctors told them the girls could go home. Throughout every step of the Clarks' journey, local and national media have been there to document it. "We didn't want any (media attention) at first," Anna Clark said. "We were perfectly OK with it being quiet. Our lives are crazy enough as it is." However, one of the reasons Anna Clark doesn't mind telling Anna Clark talks about bringing her daughters home from the hospital. Below, the twins stretch out on the floor. BETH YOUNG Standard-Examiner BETH YOUNG/Standard-Examiner Kerry Clark takes his turn with the twins at home. their story now, is the idea that it could help others. "When we first looked for information about conjoined twins, I couldn't find anything that made me feel better," she said. "All the odds were horrible. So if our story could give somebody hope and strength, then it was worth it." As a proud dad, Kerry Clark has been trying to keep up with their media attention through the internet. "It's fun to type their names into Google and get 10 pages of articles," he said. Although the Clarks have been through an incredibly stressful experience, they laugh easily at what life has thrown at them. "He jokes around a lot," Anna Clark said. "It really helps to have a sense of humor about things." After bringing the twins home, one of them had a fever so they went to the nearest emergency room, where they were told to go to Primary Children's. Many hours lately on their way home they got a call that their oldest had fallen off a bunk bed and had broken her arm. Both Kerry and Anna laugh at the fact that they had to go to three different emergency rooms in 24 hours, for two different children. "He's my best friend," Anna Clark said, of her husband. "I couldn't imagine going through this with anyone else." The Clarks, who have been married almost five years, will definitely have to use their sense of humor now that the twins are home. The days of holding them together seem to be over, Anna Clark said. lf While they were together they would just lie on the floor and hang out with each other," she said. "Now that they are separated.I can't get out of their sight. They want to be held all the time — and they want to be held separately." With six girls in the house, Terry Clark is definitely outnumbered. But after the arrival of Allyson and Avery, he says that he no longer hopes for a boy. "When they started coming two at a time, we gave up," he said. The future is still uncertain for Allyson and Avery. The doctors tell the Clarks that everything looks good, but only time will tell if there will be other medical issues. For now, Anna and Kerry Clark say that they feel they have reached a happy ending. "I almost feel guilty calling them conjoined, because everything just went so great," Anna said. How many soldiers does it take to create a Liberty Bell? H ow many men does it take to create a human Liberty Bell? Photographers Arthur S. Mile and John D. Thomas found that it was about 25,000 soldiers when they took this picture at Fort Dix, N.J., in 1918. "I consider the picture to be a real treasure," writes Renee Gerlach, of Phoenix, Ariz., who shares the photograph with us. "My stepfather, Charles E. Van Gordon, is easily located, as he is standing at the bottom of the vshaped portion of the letter Y. "My stepfather told of the long hours it took for all of the men to get into place and the picture to be taken. He told of how hot it was, as the men's uniforms were made of wool." O O "My stepfather told of the long hours it took for all of the men to get into place and the picture to be taken. He told of how hot it was, as the men's uniforms were made of wool." RENEE GERLACH, step-daughter of a soldier in the photo dent Woodrow Wilson, the U.S. Marine Corps emblem and a shield featuring the stars and stripes of the U.S. The photographers, who worked out of Chicago, would spend a week or more preparing for their unique pictures, which were taken from a tower 70 to 80 feet high with a camera that had an 11-by 14-inch viewer. It has been reported that Mole and Thomas and other photographers who duplicated their efforts donated the entire income generated from such Mole and Thomas posed many thou- pictures to the returning soldiers and sands at numerous military camps, the country's efforts to rebuild lives in forming gigantic symbols of patriothe soldiers' reentry process. tism such as Uncle Sam, a U.S. flag, the Reprinted with permission of RemiStatue of Liberty, a portrait of Presinisce Magazine :. O O |