For years Jed Lippard shared a story with his twin sons, Owen and Abe, who were born on Leap Day in 2008. It was a tale about another set of Leap Day twins who, 16 years after their birth, made a pact to always drop what they were doing every four years and celebrate their birthday together.

It was a story that meant a lot to Lippard. But it wasn’t true.

So how did a Leap Day twin misunderstanding become a reality?

Lippard grew up as a gay man in Pennsylvania and said he never thought he'd end up in a place and time where he could get married and have kids of his own. But in 2008, he found himself living with his husband in Massachusetts, married and expecting twins through a surrogate.

Their sons ended up coming a month early, born on the unlikeliest of days: Feb. 29, 2008.

Two men sit on a hospital bed holding two swaddled newborn babies.
Jed Lippard and Todd Zinn hold their newborn sons, Owen and Abe.
Jed Lippard Courtesy

In an auspicious coincidence, Lippard, who works as an educator, had a colleague who was also a twin born on Leap Day.

That co-worker and friend, Ruth Whalen Crockett, now lives in Lowell. Her twin sister, Nora Whalen, lives in Minneapolis. Like Lippard, they both work in education.

“Our parents did not know they were having twins until Nora was born,” Ruth Whalen Crockett said.

Lippard said he distinctly remembers talking to Ruth about her Leap Day twin.

“I recall having had a conversation with Ruth not long after my boys were born where she told me that when she and her sister Nora turned 16 — or 4 — that they made a pact with each other that no matter where they are in the world, every four years, on their actual birthday, February 29th, they are going to drop everything and get together and be together in person,” Lippard said.

It became a story he told his sons a lot.

“I tell my kids this all the time, that I have these friends, they made this pact,” Lippard said. “I was sort of impressing upon them this idea for their own connection moving forward.”

When Lippard’s twins were about to turn 8 (or 2, if you only count Leap Days), Lippard happened to run into both Ruth and Nora Whalen again at an education conference.

“And he [Lippard] comes up to us and he thanks us," Ruth Whalen Crockett said. "And he says, I am so glad that the two of you always celebrate your birthday together, because I have told my boys, I've insisted that they spend every leap year together, because that is what the Whalen twins do.”

Ruth and Nora Whalen said they were confused. They wouldn't be together for their birthday.

In fact, they hadn't been together for their birthday since they were 16 years old (or 4, if you only count Leap Days.)

“Jed, we haven't celebrated our birthday together since we were turning 4, like, 16 years old,” Ruth Whalen Crockett said. “And he said, what?”

Two men and two boys pose under a rainbow in front of desert rocks.
Todd Zinn and Jed Lippard with their sons, Abe and Owen.
Jed Lippard Courtesy

Lippard said he was shocked. What about the beautiful story of the pact that Ruth had told him about?

Maybe it was the haze of early parenting, or a simple misunderstanding on Lippard’s part.

“I paused,” he said. “I said, didn't you tell me when my boys were born that you made a pact with each other when you were 16, that every four years you're going to get together on your birthday? And they both started cracking up and laughing hysterically.”

They said no, Ruth Whalen Crockett said — “regretfully.”

But the story planted a seed in their minds, they said. And this year, for their 48th birthday (or 12th, for those doing Leap Day math), they’ll celebrate together.

“Ruthie will be getting out a plane very shortly to arrive in Minneapolis mid-afternoon, and we will be celebrating our 12th birthday,” Nora Whalen said. “We're having kind of a blowout party.”

They hope the tradition will stick.

“I think four years from now, we'll be somewhere, you know, where we'll have our toes in some warm water and sand,” Ruth Whalen Crockett said. “Jed has this imagination that we are on a tropical island on a Leap Day every year. And I joke that, you know, we could be at an airport hotel in Des Moines and we'd be having a good time together.”

Lippard said he doesn’t know what the future holds for his own boys, who are now teenagers.

“Who knows what will happen when they turn 20 or 24 or 28, you name it,” he said. “But I am hopeful that they will draw some inspiration from a manufactured story that I came up with in my own head that has at least inspired another set of Leap Day twins.”