When you reach a certain age — usually anything over 10 — birthday candles can become a delicate situation. Do you light them all? Do they begin to represent five years with each light? How many do you use before having the fire extinguisher handy?

But for two Oak Harbor residents, those candles have always been tricky. For them everything is always double the fun, double the laughs, double the birthday light.

Sunday, friends and family will gather to celebrate Rosa (Rip) Koorn and Lawrence Rip’s 80th birthday. It is a day for which they couldn’t be more grateful.

“The Lord has blessed us with the many years we’ve had,” Lawrence said.

“We’re very thankful for everything,” Rosa said.

Rosa Marie Rip and Lawrence Raymond Rip were born May 28, 1927. Marie arrived first and Lawrence was born about a half hour later.

They were born to Paulina and Peter Rip who arrived in Oak Harbor in 1910. The Rip parents lived on the family farm, located in the Swantown area, until they passed away in 1953 and 1966.

Rosa and Lawrence — along with their older siblings Jacob and Gertrude — grew up on the family dairy farm. They have been lifetime members of the Christian Reformed Church where they attended Sunday school before entering primary school in a school house that was formerly located near the present day Oak Harbor police station on Barrington Drive. They then attended a school house that was once where the Oak Harbor School District Maintenance and Operations building currently stands on Midway Blvd.

When they reached the fifth grade they attended Oak Harbor Christian School. After the eighth grade, both entered the work force.

“It was just what was done at the time,” Lawrence said.

Both worked the family dairy for some time. Lawrence ventured into logging, even spent time at a feed store before buying a farm of his own. He operated a dairy in the Monroe Landing area for more than 20 years before beginning a construction career. After working for others he started his own business in the early 1980s, Rips Roofing and Construction, which his son, Jeff, still operates today.

After the family farm, Rosa’s work career included time as a turkey picker and as a caretaker for Navy officers’ children. After she met her husband, Ralph, she focused on her family. Today she enjoys spending time with all of her grandkids, and practicing embroidery and other handiwork.

The announcement of their upcoming 80th birthday May 28 isn’t the first time the twins have made headlines.

The twins made front page news in the Aug. 31, 1933, edition of the Farm Bureau News that formerly served Island County readers.

The Rips were featured along with two other sets of twins — Dick and Marie Arends, and Nellie and Theresa Lampers — all of whom were set to start school that year.

The Arends were born Dec. 4, 1926, the Lampres were born March 27, 1927, and the Rip twins were born May 28, 1927. All three sets were delivered by Dr. H.A. Carskadden.

The headline read, “Three pairs of twins will puzzle teacher.” Back then having a set of twins in school wasn’t “so very unusual” even though at the time it had been a few years since there were twins in the Oak Harbor schools.

“But to have three sets enter in the same class and in the same year is unusually unusual,” the article said. “Something that even many of our largest cities have never been able to boast of.”

The population at the time was 350 people and everyone went to the same church and the same school, Lawrence remembered.

Apparently, twins come to Oak Harbor in waves. The article predicted the trio of twins would be the last entry of locally-born twins into Oak Harbor schools for some time. For none had been born since the “twin epidemic of 1926-1927.”

Both Rosa and Lawrence say they have enjoyed growing up and raising their own families in Oak Harbor.

Lawrence and his wife Joyce have been married for 58 years. They have two children, Launa Riepma and Jeff Rip, both of Oak Harbor. They also have six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and one more on the way.

Rosa was married to her late husband Ralph Koorn for 43 years. Rosa’s four sons — Eugene, Marvin, Terrill and Gregory, all live in Oak Harbor. She has 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

At age 80 both feel lucky for their lives, their families and each other.

“It’s better than the alternative,” Rosa said.

“I couldn’t have found a better person to be a twin with,” Lawrence said.