A few years back, before Noemi was born, Lila and I trekked out to the Prospect Park Zoo to meet our friends Paula and her daughter. They’d recently moved to Brooklyn, but when we first met they were living on 13th street, literally across the street from our front window.

Walking around near the prairie dog mound, Paula said she had the craziest thing happen to her, and that I’d never guess what it was.

“What,” I said, “You have an identical twin?”

Paula’s jaw dropped while her eyes seemed to focus somewhere 30 or 40 feet past my head. “Yes, How’d you know?”

I didn’t, I was being a smartass. An accidentally and uncannily intuitive smartass.

Paula was adopted as a baby separately from her identical twin sister. Neither knew anything of the other’s existence until that day in 2004 when they’d somehow discovered each other.

Unfortunately, we’ve sort of lost touch, or at least haven’t seen each other in a long time. I don’t remember all the details of Paula’s story, but I just noticed that her book, written with her twin sister, is available for pre-order on Amazon: Identical Strangers: A Memoir of Twins Separated and Reunited. My copy is reserved, I’ve been waiting to read this for three years.

Here’s hoping this makes it to Oprah. And I’m sending Paula an email now.

Update: Paula and Elyse’s site: Identical Strangers