A woman's twin sister died when she was 3 years old. Now she's building a ranch where other grieving twins can go to mourn.

• Tasha Cram's twin sister Tonya died weeks before their 4th birthday.

• She now runs an organization for twins whose twin siblings have died.

• She is building a ranch retreat, with help from other twin volunteers.

Overlooking a lush valley in Jackson, California, the Butterfly Ranch resembles many scenic retreat centers. The 45-acre property comes with a pool and is currently being expanded to include one-bedroom cottages, hobbit houses, treehouses, and yurts.

What makes it different is who the ranch will eventually be for: Twins grieving the deaths of their twin siblings.

Tasha Cram, 50, started the renovation project in 2022 as a way to help twins get through a loss she experienced in her early childhood. Just before their 4th birthday, Cram's twin sister, Tonya, died from leukemia.

It took her many years to process the loss — and find new meaning in her life by guiding other twins through such a unique grieving experience.

A near-death experience pushed Cram to start living her life

As a child, her twin's death was extremely hard on Cram. "I waited to die, because we always did everything together," she told Insider. "It wasn't until I was about 10 before it fully clicked in my head that she was never coming back."

But the biggest turning point in Cram's life happened a decade ago, when she got sick with neurofibromas, a condition where she developed benign nerve tumors. She had seven in her abdomen, and in a surgery to remove them, she had a reaction to the anesthesia and struggled to breathe.

"I almost died," she said. Cram believes she met Tonya's soul during the experience. "She said, 'You're not dead. We have more to do. You need to listen to me: Get back. Get to work.'"

She looked for ways to help twins heal from the same loss

In 2017, Cram joined an online support group for twins whose twin siblings had died. While she said it helped her with the grieving process, she wanted to learn more ways to heal.

Cram dove into researching why identical twins are so connected. While she couldn't find studies about twins whose twin siblings died, the existing research on twin bonds and complicated grief led her to believe that twins need special resources to cope.

Cram has met many other twins whose twin siblings have died, and now has a strong belief that bringing these twins together can help them feel reconnected to what it feels like to be a twin.

"They still have their body, mind, and spirit, and they're no less of a twin just because their twin is gone," she said.

In 2018, she founded her company, Twinful — a name she said came to her in a dream. The company's purpose is to help grieving twins find new purpose and connection in their lives. In addition to the ranch, Cram's also gone on a "hugging tour" to hug other twins whose twins have died and coordinated a project where twins make blankets for other twins.

The ranch is built by twins, for twins

The ranch, which she bought in 2021 and estimates will take four years to complete, will become a place for twins whose twin siblings have died to spend time together and heal.

For now, however, any twins (or close family to twins) are welcome to visit as long as they also work. Cram currently offers free room and board to twins in exchange for their help in building out the rest of the ranch.

For pairs of twins, Cram sees their contributions as "building out a sanctuary that will ultimately be available to one of them when one of them passes."

Once volunteers arrive at the airport, Cram and her husband pick them up, feed them, and house them for an average of four days. Volunteers must work for two hours per night they stay, but can do it all in one day and use the rest of the time to swim in the pool or explore the area.

"It's more about them having time to relax than it is about working, but yet they feel like they're contributing to the expansion of the ranch," she said.

To help with funding, Cram has also started a brick project where twin donors can buy engraved bricks to decorate the pathway to the ranch. She sold them at the 2023 Twins Days Festival, which was also her first time attending.

She said she received lots of support from the twins who celebrated the festival this year. "It just means a lot to me that twins are open to the notion that their bond transcends this physical experience," she said. "I think that's a beautiful thing."

Read the original article on Insider