Gwinnett County triplets turn 22-years-old on 2-22-22

“Three” has always been the operative word with the siblings — Jill, Ross and Jake — but, it’s the number two that will be front and center as the triplets turn 22 on Feb. 22, 2022.

It’s their Golden Birthday — the year you turn the same age as your birthday— and they celebrated at their parents’ Duluth home with dinner, cake and a front-yard display that reminded all the neighbors.

“They won’t be together for their actual birthday on Tuesday, because they’ll be in class, so they’re doing something together this weekend,” said mother Randy Bieniek, who is an identical twin herself. “It’s pretty special.”

Life with triplets can be a constant juggling act and it will be no different this spring when Jill, Ross and Jake earn their college degrees a few days apart. Jill and Ross will graduate in May from the University of Georgia (Jill is an exercise science major and Ross studied risk management) and Jake will graduate from Georgia Southern with a degree in criminal justice.

“They’re trying to get to each other’s graduations,” said Randy. “It will be a little hairy, but we’ve got it all laid out.”

Randy — who has an older son, Scott Szymanski, from a previous marriage — said that her children have been close friends and were often in the same classes in elementary and middle school. The triplets are 2018 graduates of Peachtree Ridge High School, where all three were on the swim team, Jill was a gymnast and Ross and Jake played lacrosse.

“They’ve always been good, supportive friends but they can be competitive,” she said. “My sister and I can still be competitive, too. They still compare, which is natural but they talk a lot to each other and Facetime each other and are probably closer than different-aged siblings…They’re all athletic. Ross and Jill like to bike and they all like to hike.”

And if living with triplets constitutes an adventure, giving birth is even more audacious, as Randy said Jill, Ross and Jake arrived on the scene about two months early.

“Most triplets are premature,” said Randy, who grew up in Norcross and spent 27 years in education, 22 of them as a school psychologist. “I had five losses between my first child and triplets, so even with a lot of science and money and prayer, it was still shocking … I was on bed rest for 19 weeks and the last nine weeks were in the hospital.

“I had great care, but it was still scary. Prematurity is something you worry about. They came eight weeks early and they all came home from the hospital the same day, about two weeks after they were born.”

Credit: Randy Bieniek/Handout

Credit: Randy Bieniek/Handout

Jill plans to pursue a doctorate in physical therapy and will enroll at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston not long after graduating from Georgia. Although Ross and Jake’s postgraduate plans aren’t yet as precise as those of their sister, Randy knows the next step move all three a little farther from one another.

“I’ve prepared myself for this,” she said. “I just want them to spread their wings and fly and find what makes them happy. And come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas.”

And while life with triplets has rarely been a walk in the park, Randy and Stan can’t imagine any other existence.

“It’s been a wild ride but I wouldn’t change a thing,” said Randy.

Credit: Gwinnett Daily Post

Credit: Gwinnett Daily Post

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