Gift Giving Pair

Twins - Laura and Susan

A GIFT-GIVING PAIR

Newsday Published: May 14, 2006
By Christine Armario, Staff Writer

After their mother died 10 years ago, twin sisters Laura Bowman and Susan Davniero couldn't help but feel empty on that one day of the year where mothers and daughters are supposed to be inseparable. They tried going out to restaurants with extended family, but it wasn't the same as visiting their mother and presenting her with a specially made heart-shaped cake.

Then, four years ago, after helping serve Thanksgiving  dinner at a soup kitchen, they got the idea of delivering Mother's Day gifts to those in need.” Just because your mother passed away doesn't mean the holiday is over," Bowman, of Babylon, said yesterday before she and her sister headed off to several Long Island women's shelters and a rehabilitation center to give away homemade pumpkin and cherry pies, and colorful gift bags filled with things like address books, perfumes, ceramics and dressy clothing.

"You bring tears to their eyes," Bowman said. "They're so touched. Someone who doesn't know them, wants to wish them a happy Mother's Day."

The sisters, who are each married but do not have children and wear the same style shoes and hair - long and straight - and often finish each other's  sentences, said their inspiration to help comes in part from their parents.

Mother's Day back then was always marked by a special dinner at mom's house. And so it was with a heavy heart that they saw her final days battling cancer. Their father had passed away years before, and the idea of spending Mother's and Father's Day alone seemed bleak.

"We said, 'How are we going to celebrate holidays with our parents gone?'" Bowman recalled. But without the family obligation, more time opened up to volunteer with others. From serving a meal at Thanksgiving to delivering gifts for mothers, they began doing volunteer work every holiday of the year - even spending time with veterans on Memorial Day.   For Mother's Day, they gathered donated gift items and called Catholic Charities for places to drop by.

"Everyone can be motivated to give," Bowman said. It's simply a matter of finding that one thing that will inspire you, she said. "This is so much fun," she said of their volunteering. "It's not a sacrifice."

Nor is Mother's Day sad for the sisters anymore.

"All mothers deserve to be remembered," Susan Davniero, of Lindenhurst, said. "Not just your own."

Newsday May 14, 2006 Article