Raymond Raphael of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh knew that if his 24-year-old twin sons had to get the better of COVID, they would do it together or they wouldn’t. They didn’t. Twins Joefred and Ralfred died fighting COVID, within hours of each other on May 13 and 14.

“Whatever happened to one, it happened to the other,” Raphael  said about the twins. “That’s how it was since their birth. I had told my wife after we got news that Jeofred had died that Ralfred won’t return home alone either. They died on May 13 and May 14, hours apart,” he told timesofindia.indiatimes.com

From the day Joefred and Ralfred were born on April 23, 1997 till the day they died, they did everything together. Both chose to pursue computer engineering, both took up jobs in Hyderabad and both were planning to migrate to Korea in near future.

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The twins wanted to give their teacher parents, who struggled to bring up their sons, a better life. “Before they died, they were planning to leave for Korea and then perhaps for Germany. I do’t know why God punished us like this,” Raphael told the website.

Raphaels, who have a third son, the eldest one, Nelfred, initially initially treated the brothers at home. But, when their oxygen level dropped to 90, doctors advised them to shift the twins to a hospital. They were admitted to a hospital on May 1.

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Their first report came positive for coronavirus. However, RT-PCR tests a few days later came negative. Doctors wanted to shift the twins to a non-COVID ICU but waited on the parents’ request. Then,suddenly on May 13, the family received the call informing them of Joefred’s death. “Our world crashed,” the distraught father said.

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Ralfred could sense that all was not well. In his last call, he asked his mother about his twin brother. By then Joefred had died. So parents made up a story and told him that Joefred had been shifted to a hospital in Delhi.

But, deep down Ralfred knew. “You are lying,” he told his mother. And within hours, he too was gone.