Twin sisters turn 99-years-old in Gulf County

Published: Feb. 8, 2023 at 7:29 PM CST

GULF COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - One set of twins celebrated a birthday most people don’t get to experience Wednesday morning.

Members of the Gulf County Senior Citizens Center teamed up with the Warden of the Gulf Correctional Institution to host a birthday party for 99-year-old twins Era Luckie Daniell and Vera Rozier.

“I feel grateful to my Lord that I’ve been able to make it this far with so little handicaps,” Daniell said.

Her twin sister also shared positive news.

“I’m feeling the same as I did when I was younger, except I don’t have the energy that I had,” Rozier said.

A number of people came out to show their support for them.

“The celebration is to show love,” Eddie C. Fields, Executive Director of the Gulf County Senior Citizens Center, said. “We want to show love. Like I said, they’re 99-years-old. They’re in the later parts of their life. Hopefully, the rest of us will make it to the latter part of our lives.”

“We found out that they were celebrating her 99th birthday, and we wanted to be a part of that,” said Gulf Correctional Institution Warden Scott Payne.

The party also served as an opportunity to reflect on the twins’ lives. They’ve been alive for nearly a century.

“She was just the best mother I ever could’ve had,” Rozier’s daughter Linda Rozier Davis said.

“I’m very proud of my mother,” Era’s daughter Vita Luckie said. “She’s a strong woman. She raised three children after my father died and we’re all good productive citizens.”

Era faced adversity more than once.

“She had one husband that died, and what 20, 30 years later she remarried, and then he died, and then my brother died,” Vita Luckie said.

However, the twins’ children said there is one thing that keeps them going.

“I think that’s the root of really their long life is living for Jesus,” Linda Davis Rozier said.

Their faith - it’s something the twins said is the secret to living a long life.