Brooklyn Best friends scheduled to give birth 1 day apart

By Robert Bondy Jackson Citizen Patriot BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) - Some of us are lucky enough to say we're still able to keep in touch with a childhood friend. Whether its regular email exchanges or getting together from time-to-time throughout the year. However, for most that is all. Life goes on and friends often go their separate ways after a while. That's not the case for Kaitlynn Panak and Jacea French. Friends since age 12, the two best friends live on the same street in Brooklyn, were married one month apart and are both pregnant with due dates one day apart, according to the Jackson Citizen Patriot. A maternity photo of the two was recently uploaded to Facebook with a short blurb on the details of their journey as best friends, and it went viral. As of Monday, the photo had picked up more than 47,000 likes from all across the world, proving to Panak and French how unique their friendship truly is. "To us it doesn't feel unique, it's just life, that's just our lives" Panak said. "... We are just these normal people living this life that just kind of worked out. I mean none of it was intentional by any means, it just kind of happened." Panak and French, both 24, became friends in middle school while playing seventh-grade basketball together. Panak said she remembered how the two shared clothes and would trade off whose house they would stay at during the summer. "I had my (older) sister, she was a senior when I was a freshman and my youngest sister wasn't even in high school when I started so it was just like a sister of the same age," French added. Both Panak and French graduated from Napoleon High School in 2008 and that's when things started getting interesting. Both attended Jackson College and eventually moved to houses on King Street in Brooklyn. Jacea French was the first to move to the area in September 2012 with her fiancé, Drew French, and was able to help Panak find a place just two doors down. Shortly after the move, Kaitlynn Panak met her future husband, Zach Panak, and was engaged in October 2013, setting up weddings only a month a part in the summer of 2014. "When we started thinking about planning our wedding we were like 'well Jacea is getting married in June, he had another wedding (to go to) in June, we had another in July (and) another one in August,'" Kaitlynn Panak said. "We're at that age where everyone is getting married, and we were like 'Well if we want to get married I guess we'll have to do it first.' So we planned a wedding for May." Kaitlynn and Zach Panak were married on May 17, and Jacea and Drew French were married June 20. Following the wedding season, both couples began trying for another baby - Jacea and Drew French already have a 2-year old daughter, Logan - and couldn't believe the news when they found out both would not only be pregnant at the same time, but also have due dates just one day apart. "The day a part thing was not planned, I don't know how that happened but it's awesome that it did," Jacea French said. Both are due in late April. Kaitlynn Panak is having a boy, and Jacea French having a girl. Having a best friend close by has been beneficial during the simultaneous pregnancy, but even before then the housing situation has been convenient for everyday life. Jacea French said the two will switch off who makes dinner, with each making a couple of meals a week for the bunch. They also will lean on each other for assistance in certain situations, like when the Panaks' bathroom was being redone last July. "The neighbors had to have loved watching their whole family come and walk down the sidewalk daily with their towels and beach bags because they had no shower for a month," Jacea French said. "And then there was a point where my vacuum was broken so I had to use her vacuum for a few weeks or so, and this neighbor (in-between us) has to got to be sitting and wonder why I'm walking back and forth with a vacuum every week." The close relationship and living arrangement has also created a new friendship between Zach Panak and Drew French. The two husbands enjoy watching sports, hunting and tackling house projects together, quickly forming a friendly bond. "I met Drew when Kaitlynn and I first started dating and basically we just started hanging out I guess," Zach Panak said. "There was no awkward stage and we just became friends." Both Zach Panak and Drew French are also featured in the gallery with the photo that went viral, drinking beers in one of the photos. Kaitlynn Panak said she never once expected the photos to get that kind of attention. She said there were many comments about how lucky the two are. "To see those kinds of things and people saying 'This is awesome and how lucky are they' and we're going, 'Yeah I guess we are,'" Kaitlynn Panak said. "I guess we didn't realize it because it's just what we've known. It's all we've ever known. I've never had another best friend, she's just always been it and it's just our lives." Published: Wed, Mar 25, 2015