RALEIGH, N.C. – Identical twin sisters in Raleigh will celebrate becoming centenarians as they ring in 2022.

Kathleen Stephenson and Alean Chavis were born on Dec. 31, 1921.

Back in those days, they say it took their father, Luther, two days to ride in a wagon from Raleigh to Durham on dirt roads.

“I’ve always said we come up on the rough side up of the mountain. [We] work hard and do all those kinds of things," Chavis said.

To this day, the duo dresses alike, speaks similarly and calls each other multiple times a day to chat on the phone.

"We talk to one another three to four times a day, see what each other’s doing," Stephenson said.

They’re still fairly independent, with Stephenson living with her daughter and Chavis in an assisted living apartment.

From sunrise to sundown, they worked on a farm near where Millbrook High School now stands. The twins lived there with five other siblings, their parents and grandmother.

They still have three sisters in their 90’s, two living in Raleigh, and one in Durham.

"We never left Raleigh,” Stephenson said. “We traveled around, but we just never left Raleigh."

They each got married, but outlived their husbands. Chavis had one daughter and Stephenson has five children.

The pair credits their longevity to hard work and healthy eating. They ate what they raised and grew on the farm.

“[You’d] kill your chicken, fry your chicken on nothing but a wood stove to cook on, that’s all you had to cook on,” Stephenson said.

They spent a lot of time in the garden, growing cucumbers, tomatoes, collards, sweet potatoes, corn and more. Hardly anything was store bought.

“We’d go to the spring to draw all the water,” Alean recounted, causing them both to laugh.

Stephenson and Chavis are the matriarchs of the Hayes family, which has grown to nearly 300 members. They’re not the only twins either.

In total, there are five sets of twins and even a set of triplets, who just turned 5.

The twins and their sister Dallie all attend Wake Chapel Church in Raleigh, just two miles from where they grew up.

On Friday, Dec. 31, there will be a birthday parade lining up at 11:30 a.m. at Beaver Dam Elementary on Tarheel Club Road. It will make its way to Wake Chapel Church, also on Tarheel Club Road, at noon.

If you’d like to send the centenarians a card, you can send them to PO Box 19611, Raleigh, NC 27619.