CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Before the wreck that killed the two people on the passenger side of the car, before the packed funeral that included a tearful eulogy from softball’s biggest celebrity, before the court case that may finally be decided Wednesday after five postponements, Mia and Mallory Stokes were simply twins and best friends.
They were inseparable and identical, resembling each other so much that everyone but their family and closest friends had no idea which one was which. They always shared a room at home in Charlotte and a sport at school, playing softball first for Lincoln Charter High in Denver and then as college freshmen at South Carolina Union.
It was hard to imagine them apart, because they so rarely were. On a softball field, in church or in a classroom, they were the Stokes twins.
