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Conjoined twin's open house celebrates volunteers

Renovation helps world’s oldest conjoined twins live comfortably.

At an open house and barbecue Saturday, July 31, Donnie and Ronnie Galyon pray with some the workers who helped convert their brother’s Beavercreek home to accommodate their unique needs as the world’s oldest conjoined twins.

Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra At an open house and barbecue Saturday, July 31, Donnie and Ronnie Galyon pray with some the workers who helped convert their brother’s Beavercreek home to accommodate their unique needs as the world’s oldest conjoined twins.

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By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer Updated 11:31 PM Saturday, July 31, 2010

BEAVERCREEK — Two weeks after moving into a large addition on their brother’s house, the world’s oldest living conjoined twins, Ronnie and Donnie Galyon, are reveling in the comforts of handicapped-accessible living.

At 58, they’re benefiting from larger rooms and wider hallways, not to mention a spacious bathroom complete with fixed and hand-held shower heads for each of them.

In fact, they’ve already had their first water fight.

“Oh, yes, it’s heaven,” Ronnie Galyon told a group of building professionals and other volunteers who made the 2,000-square-foot addition possible at an open house Saturday,  July 31, at their new Winthrop Drive home.

The value of the addition was about $170,000, but donations of labor and materials lowered the actual cost to about $72,500.

For Vickie Vance, contributing to the project was a family effort. Vance, the customer service manager at Interim Healthcare, which provides home health care services to the Galyon twins, supplied food for work crews, with the help of her sister and others. Her husband, Keith, and her nephew, Jason Morgan, installed siding on the house.

A good friend, Mark Braden of ABC Supply, sponsored a spaghetti dinner that raised more than $5,000, she said. ABC also donated the roofing and shingles. Interim Healthcare also contributed $5,000.

“Doing something like this for Ronnie and Donnie, it gives you the greatest feeling ever,” she said. “They are truly a gift. They really are.”

John Harkleroad, project manager for Brentwood Builders of Cedarville, managed the volunteers and contractors.

The ministry of the New York-based Christian Youth Corps., which built momentum for the project, has a vision similar to that of Brentwood Builders, Harkleroad said.

“We wanted to bless the Galyon family in the name of Jesus, and through these good works help the Galyon family be reminded and be reassured that God does love them,” Harkleroad said. “On a more surface level, it’s just great to bless someone in the community and work with other volunteers for a common goal.”

Jim Galyon said the new living space brought tears to his twin brothers’ eyes. Jim and his wife, Mary, opened their home to his older brothers, who had been living in a small Dayton home. Jim expects Donnie and Ronnie will be able to shoot pool with him downstairs in a new recrecreation room — or, as the twins call it, the “man cave.”

“They’ll live the rest of their days here comfortably,” Jim Galyon said. “They’re definitely happier. They’re definitely more at peace. They tell me they feel safer here.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7457 or bsutherly@Dayton DailyNews.com.

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