You Are Never Too Old to Start Living

Woodland Hills, Calif. — Walk inside the Michelangelo Hair House and, at first glance, it looks and sounds like an ordinary salon. There is a neatly organized receptionist desk accented by a few brightly colored plants, a blow dryer loudly humming in the background, wicker chairs adorned with purple seat covers arranged neatly for waiting clients and green foliage placed strategically at every hair station.

Walk in a little further, and around a circular, wooden coffee table, three women sit and talk (or rather, bicker) about who looks better today.

 “You have spinach in your teeth, Terry. Ew, that’s a big one,” one of the women said to another with a thick and distinct New York accent.

A second woman chimed in, “Oh, that’s disgusting, you should be embarrassed.”

The third, and target of this nagging, put her perfectly pink manicured nails up to her teeth and felt around until she removed a large piece of spinach. “Oh shut up, you two,” she said.

Meet the “Golden Sisters” — Mary Bartnicki, 82, and her twin sisters, Josie Cavaluzzi and Terry Dahlquist, both 74. The three women who together manage the Michelangelo Hair House, also have their own reality documentary show on Oprah’s network, OWN, all thanks to one hilarious conversation captured on video. The sisters became an overnight sensation after their uproarious YouTube video commentating on Kim Kardashian’s sex tape scandal went viral.

Once the Oprah Winfrey Network picked them up, they shot to fame.

What these sisters have to offer is distinctively unique — Mary, Josie and Terry share their genuine opinions on life, pop culture, family and love to anyone who has ears to listen.

A sacred bond of sisterhood

 “Just last week when I was driving with Mary in the car, she was on the phone with Josie and had a huge argument. She slammed down her phone, evidently upset. Two minutes later, Josie called back asking where they wanted to meet for coffee. They just look past their differences and move right on,” said Pam Bartnicki, Mary Bartnicki’s daughter-in-law.

The three women were born into a large Italian family in New York City. Mary, the eldest of the three, was born in the Bronx on May 3, 1931, during the Great Depression.  She was the fourth child, so her parents were quite content with the size of their family. When her parent’s received news that they were having twins, they were in complete shock.

 “Oh it was the biggest mistake in the world, are you kidding? My parents already had four kids, and it was the Depression — it was a mistake” said Mary.

The birth of Terry and Josie turned out to be a blessing in disguise — the three sisters became inseparable from the get-go.

Terry and Josie looked up to Mary as children. Everywhere Mary went the twins would follow. Being an older sister to the twins was a privilege. “They were my toys,” said Mary.

Teresa nodded her head in agreement and interjected, “Mary as a big sister was great because she would take us everywhere with her — even on dates.”

Mary chuckled to herself, and her eyes opened wide as if she had found a lost memory, “Two lollipops,” she said. “I gave them two Tootsie Pop lollipops to suck on while I was making out against a tree.”

Stars are born

Becoming “YouTube famous,” as the women describe it, was another blessing in disguise that brought an already close group of sisters to a new level of intimacy.

All three seemed eager to retell their accounts of gaining this newfound fame. Terry’s voice finally triumphed over the other two, as she began her version of their rise to fame.Terry initially pitched a show to LMNO Productions about her and her son called, “My Son the Plumber.”

“They loved me but they didn’t like my son, so I said I have two sisters. When they met my two sisters they fell in love.”

LMNO Productions helped the sisters establish a YouTube channel. Every Wednesday, as the women joined for lunch, they would produce a video giving advice, gossiping about pop culture and talking about their experiences over the years.

“At first our videos didn’t really go anywhere,” said Mary. “We would get maybe 10,000 people that were watching our video.”

Then, on April 29, 2012, something magical happened. The three women assembled around their dining room table and curiously watched the Kim Kardashian sex tape as their camera was rolling.

 “As we were looking at it, I was so shocked,” Mary said. “She was lying there, and he never relieved himself! I was thinking ‘Oh my God, he is so young it should happen’ … and it didn’t happen.”

Their blunt conversation was quickly published to YouTube. The result? A viral video.

“It went viral you hear me,” Mary said as she shook her head in disbelief, “So how do you like that? What a dirty, filthy world.”

When the Golden Sisters heard the news that their clip had six million views, they were confused. First, because they didn’t know what the word viral meant. “We thought viral meant our computer had a virus,” Mary said.

Second, because it was a video of them watching porn. “It’s so ridiculous. I’m just about ready to die, and then I’m famous at 82 for watching a porno, my God!”

All three sisters were a little skeptical about how they would be perceived after the video segment aired.

Mary recalled her feelings of remorse as she entered church at Pepperdine the Sunday after it was first posted. “I could have died,” she said. “They looked at me, and I could tell they had seen it.”

In the end, the video turned out to be a good thing for the sisters, especially Mary, who at the age of 82 felt she needed something to keep her going.

“At first, my kids were upset by the video, but now they are so very very happy because they see me so happy at my age. I lost my husband a year and a half ago; I could be grieving, but I am over here laughing.”

With the success of their YouTube video, they were quickly picked up by the Oprah Winfrey Network. The first episode of their weekly television series “Golden Sisters” debuted on June 1, 2013. It didn’t take long for them to accept and embrace their newfound stardom.

“Terry and Josie are divas, I swear to God,” Mary said. “Terry actually wants to sell memorabilia that we have worn on the show!”

With this statement, an argument ensued. Typical sister bickering; Mary claimed that the hat that Terry wanted to sell was, in fact, half hers because she paid for half of it.

Thoughts on pop culture

Each of these women has a distinct opinion on pop culture today. Celebrities and popular culture have rapidly evolved since their teenage years, but it has always been something that has intrigued and fascinated them.

As young adults, Mary was infatuated with Rita Hayworth and Lana Turner, and the twins loved Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor — women who are strikingly different from today’s pop icons such as Miley Cyrus or Britney Spears.

Upon mention of Cyrus, all three women perked up. They were eager to discuss the recent Video Music Award’s scandal and the concept of twerking.

“Oh she’s something, that Cyrus girl. That was disgusting with that big finger,” Mary said.

Terry sat back in her chair before voicing her opinion on the subject matter. “I think that girl is going to look back and be sorry she did it,” she said.

When the word “twerk” entered the conversation, another argument ensued — this time the women couldn’t help but laugh as they defended their definition of the word.

“It clearly means jerking. Or wait, it means twitching and working. Yes, twitching and working,” Josie said.

Mary shot her a look of disapproval and then gave her definition, “Listen to me, twist and work means twerk.”

After a few minutes, they came to the conclusion that twerking could not be defined. “It’s a stupid word, twerking,” Mary said.

Living fully

It may appear that the Golden Sisters are just like any other grandmother — wise, witty and full of advice. But the Golden Sisters know what twerking is, they love reading TMZ and they speak freely about sex as if they were in their twenties.

Although their videos may seem ludicrous, they have an unmistakable purpose. “We want our audience to laugh, because we believe that laughter is medicine,” said Josie.

If anything, these videos are a reminder to live each day like it is the last. At 82, Mary still wakes up each morning, turns on the radio and prances around the kitchen for an hour to get her cardio in.

Her daughter-in-law Pam Bartnicki said that, “Her [Mary’s] energy far surpasses so many people, much younger people.” These three sisters realize that just because they are getting older, does not mean they have to grow up.

As Mary offered her last piece of advice, the quiet humming of the blow dryer finally shut off, as if to allow Mary’s words to be cherished and uninterrupted:

“Look and enjoy every decade of your life and know that the best is yet to come, always, because here we are at the best time in our lives. Here we are ready for the grave, and we are happy. I am going to die with a big smile on my face.”

And with those words, she paused, turned toward her sister Josie and for the first time all day, lowered her voice and whispered, “How amazing is that, Josie?”