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Column: Twins, age 64, earn their high school diplomas together — at last

Twins, Carol Baker, l, and Carolyn Lowery-Baker, r, with their photo as toddlers, finished high school after leaving in 1975.
Carol Baker (left) and Carolyn Lowery-Baker, with their photo as toddlers, finished high school after dropping out in 1975.
(Alex Karvounis, MiraCosta College)

Undiagnosed learning disabilities as kids had caused them to drop out of high school, but they never gave up on their diploma dream

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Identical twins captivated the audience at MiraCosta College graduation ceremony last week.

It was an adult high school commencement, and the proud, smiling grads were 64-year-old Carol Elizabeth Baker and twin sister Carolyn Elaine Lowery-Baker.

The throng of well-wishers cheering, clapping and crying happy tears included about 18 of their relatives — sons, daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild, along with church friends and neighbors from their senior living complex in Vista.

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It had taken Carol three years in the MiraCosta continuing program to complete her high school classes after having dropped out of school at age 16 to raise her newborn son.

“I walked with a cane on stage and accepted my diploma. What was so awesome was seeing all my teachers there. They made a line on both sides and shook my hand and hugged me. At the end of the line were my children.

“My goal was to graduate high school in front of my children and my grandchildren, so they could see it happen.”

Her twin sister had a similar story. Both girls, while they were unaware as youngsters of their learning disabilities, were diagnosed later with attention deficit disorders and dyslexia.

Both could read but had extreme difficulty comprehending the meaning of what they read.

“They might as well have given us a book and told us to look at the pictures,” Carolyn says. “They were trying to get us to do something we didn’t understand.”

There was little specialized education for those with learning disabilities back then, and the twins became lost in the school system.

Carolyn tried returning to high school and enrolling in adult high school a couple of times in subsequent years but found the academics — especially math — too challenging. “I would get very despondent and just say forget it.”

The twins grew up in the Los Angeles area — daughters of a single mom who operated a Winchell’s Donut House while raising eight kids. As children, they helped her at the shop by folding doughnut boxes and later filling orders at the counter.

Their mom always took pride in the twins doing things together. They dressed exactly alike at school and wore the same hairstyle. Teachers couldn’t tell them apart.

They even hatched a scheme to trade places in class. Carolyn took her sister’s English tests, while Carol sat at Carolyn’s desk and did her math exams — until they got caught.

When they couldn’t solve problems on the chalk board in front of the class, the girls were bullied and teased by their classmates, who called them “dumb” and “stupid.”

“We just buried it,” Carol says. “Momma said, ‘You have to go to school,’ so we went to school. ... When we got to high school, that’s when we crashed.” Unable to keep up, the girls started cutting classes.

Carolyn became a teen mom followed a few months later by Carol. They tried returning to school but eventually moved into an apartment and began raising their babies together.

“We always stayed together,” Carol says. When an older brother left his home in Vista to relocate in Northern California in 1985, Carol moved to San Diego County to live in his house. Her sister joined her the following year.

With school in the rearview mirror, they both worked on their careers. Carol loved working with people and became a successful social worker. Carolyn started a home childcare service that built up a wait list of preschoolers.

It wasn’t until 30 years after quitting high school, when Carol was volunteering at a local childcare center, that she decided to re-enroll in school. To take on more responsibility in her job, she needed child development classes.

By now, however, she had been evaluated and knew she suffered from ADHD and dyslexia and was able to enter a special education program with learning accommodations tailored to her needs.

She worked with the disabled services counselors at MiraCosta College and, this time, attending school was a different story. She earned her child development certificate and put it to good use.

Eventually, crippled by severe back pain, Carol took a disability retirement and turned her attention back to getting her high school diploma.

She didn’t tell her sister why she was working on her computer late into the evening, or who she was talking to on her many phone chats with school counselors and student tutors who were helping her along the way.

Finally, her puzzled sister asked: “You’re up day and night doing this school work. What are you doing?”

“I told her I was working on a high school diploma. She looked at me and said, ‘Not without me, you aren’t. No, that won’t happen.’ So we started taking classes together.”

This time, in addition to written class notes, special services and counseling offered through the MiraCosta Community Learning Center, they also got math help from Carol’s 17-year-old granddaughter.

John Makevich, dean of MiraCosta’s Community Learning Center and continuing and community education, says Carol and Carolyn were among nearly 4,000 students enrolled this past year in the school’s continuing education program, where adult high school diploma courses are offered there tuition free.

Thirty-two percent of the students are age 55 or older.

As the twins took the graduation stage, one of the officials read a few words they had written: “We dropped out of high school over 48 years ago ... started our families at an early age, and here we are.

“On our caps are over 35 rhinestones representing our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The gold butterflies are there to give reference and honor to our mother who is no longer with us, but we know she will be proud.”

Their presence on stage was proof, they said, to those who think they can’t do it, that they can. Their remarks ended with an Oscar Wilde quote: “Success doesn’t rush. The greatest reward is the journey.”

So impressed were faculty members that they nominated the twins for inclusion in the national adult education honor society based on their perseverance, dedication and success.

“We didn’t rush,” Carolyn says, “but we were not quitters.”

Afterward, she added: “This was something my mom would have always wanted to see us do — graduate together as twins.”

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