Page 29 - BusinessWest July 7, 2025

Joseph and Vincent Bartolucci
Identical Twins Double Down on the Passion They Bring to Nursing
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
“My mom would be
working with the
patients, and I saw
how passionate
she was and how
awesome a nurse
she was, and that
was the moment
when I said, ‘I can
do this; I want to
do this.”
Joseph and Vincent Bartolucci say they’ve always enjoyed inten-
tionally confusing people and assuming each other’s identity —
starting in kindergarten.
Let’s call it an identical-twins thing.
“It was really fun, especially with our mom — I used to answer
to ‘Vincent’ all the time,” Joe said. “She would always confuse us,
whether it was calling for us across the house or seeing us in the
room.”
And their mother, Michele, who they say possesses a healthy
sense of humor, was never shy about joining in on the fun, to the
point of using her eyeliner to draw a freckle on Joe’s right cheek to
match the one on Vin’s, in an effort to further confuse their teachers
and classmates. She would also dress them in identical outfits, mak-
ing it still harder to tell them apart.
A penchant for fun is not the only thing the Bartolucci twins took
from their mother. Another is a passion for helping others and, more
specifically, the nursing profession.
Indeed, Michele Bartolucci has been a nurse at Mercy Medical
Center in Springfield for more than 30 years, working in intermedi-
ate care and endoscopy, where she is now nurse manager.
“That’s her passion ... she just loves the field; she just loves help-
ing people,” Vin said. “She would always come home with stories,
talking about how she would help her patients that day and how it
made her feel. She had hard days, too, but she would always express
that she just loved helping people.”
This sentiment rubbed off on the twins, who recently graduated
from the nursing program at Holyoke Community College (HCC),
Joe, left, and Vin Bartolucci. Or is it Vin on the left?
No, it’s Joe.
where they were in most classes together and where they greatly
confounded fellow students, professors, advisers, and even the
photographer at commencement, who thought they were the same
person.
Business W est
MONTHLY FEATURE 29
JULY 7, 2025