It took just 18 hours of being alive for this Romeo to meet his Juliet

Two households, both alike in dignity.

In fair, um, Hardeeville, where we lay our scene.

Lady Montague rests comfortably in Room 101 of the maternity suite at Coastal Carolina Hospital.

Just 30 feet away, in the room next door, Lady Capulet does the same, but she’s just had a C-section so, let’s face it, it might not actually be so comfy.

The two women have not yet met, though fate has already linked them.

Without saying a word to each other, they have done the extraordinary — it’s a plot twist William Shakespeare himself couldn’t have imagined on the page.

They have gone viral on Facebook.

And now they are lying in bed, watching the likes and the comments and the shares rise and rise and rise.

Lady Capulet gets an alert on her phone.

It’s a message.

From Lady Montague.

“I sent you a friend request because I feel like we HAVE to keep in touch.”

Agreeing, Lady Capulet accepts.

This time, they will be friends.

This time, they will watch each other’s children grow.

This time, there will be a happy ending.

And thus, the story of the real life Romeo and Juliet, the ones from Beaufort and Bluffton, the ones born 18 hours apart this week, is getting a very modern rewrite.

Man crush

Morgan Hernandez of Beaufort snuggled in bed Tuesday morning with her sleeping newborn.

Since giving birth to Romeo on Sunday afternoon — after 25 hours of labor — she had slept only a few hours, but she was bright-eyed, friendly and greatly amused by everything happening around her.

Carolyn Grant, the director of public relations and marketing for Coastal Carolina Hospital, stood nearby with a notebook and phone in hand.

“ ‘Good Morning America’ wants an interview,” Grant told Hernandez.

The night before, Cassie Clayshulte, a children’s portrait photographer in Bluffton who is also the official newborn photographer for the hospital, had posted a photo she had taken earlier in the day.

Two sleeping infants with no relation to each other. Born 18 hours apart.

One named Romeo.

The other, Juliet.

It was a story that seemed too good to be true.

Clayshulte’s post quickly went viral, and soon well-wishers from across the world were celebrating the unlikely duo and the national media came calling.

“Get out! Shut up!” Hernandez laughed and looked at me. “I’m sweating all of a sudden.”

She was overwhelmed by the attention, but admitted she wouldn’t hate it if Ellen Degeneres called them.

“I love her,” she said. “I adore her. I remember watching her with my grandma.”

A few minutes later Hernandez’s husband walked in. The media was referring to him by his given name, Edwin, but to her he is Jovanny.

“Guess what,” she said.

Grant told him the news.

Jovanny nodded calmly, his eyes on his baby.

“I’m as clammy as can be,” Morgan laughed again.

The young couple, who have been married for two years, couldn’t get over it — a simple coincidence, a single photograph had made them internet famous in a matter of hours.

They are just regular people, they both said at different times. We’re just happy to have our son, their firstborn and the first grandchild in both of their families.

“He’s filled a hole in me I didn’t even know needed filling,” Jovanny said.

It had taken them two years to conceive.

To keep the sadness and frustration at bay, they had chosen the names of their future children long ago, one for a boy, one for a girl. These would be the kids they would create together.

Romeo, they said, is named after a singer they both like, Romeo Santos.

He’s smooth. He’s romantic. He’s talented but humble.

“I don’t have a man-crush on this guy ...” Jovanny said after listing all the reasons he admires the singer.

“Sounds like it,” Morgan giggled.

Jovanny took out his phone and played “All Aboard,” one of the many songs Romeo Hernandez listened to in utero.

The new father had not held an infant before, never mind changed one. Now he was the full-time diaper guy, the baby hog, who was holding his son at every opportunity.

He talked to Romeo and imagined what kind of father-son conversations they would have in the future. When the baby fussed, he quietly calmed him. “Daddy’s here! It’s OK. Daddy’s here! You’re fine. You’re fine.”

“It’s a guessing game,” he said about figuring out why a baby is crying. “He’s either hot or cold or hungry or needs his diaper changed. You don’t know.”

After a reswaddle, he determined Romeo was hungry for his lunch.

“That’s the one thing I can’t help him with right now,” Jovanny smiled.

Dire Straits

Christiana Shifflett and Allan Umana of Bluffton were watching TV in a darkened room next door to the Hernandezes.

The couple, already parents to 2-year-old Jonas, have been married for six years.

And though Juliet, born by C-section on Monday morning, already seemed different from how their firstborn was in the hours after he was born, they had the calm, steady demeanor of the experienced.

“I just thought it was so funny,” Shifflett said of finding out about Romeo. “It would have been (funny) for any two names that go together ... like Hansel and Gretel.”

“It’s just a big coincidence,” she said.

Shifflett and Umana also had had their name picked out for a while.

After having a reveal party in November, at which Umana was to break open a balloon that would spill out either pink or blue powder and before which Shifflett accidentally dropped the balloon, spilling out the pink powder right in front of Umana and giving away the surprise, the two went through lists of J names.

“We wanted a J because our son’s name started with a J,” Shifflett said.

In December, she turned to her husband and said, “What about Juliet?”

They both like the show “Psych,” which features a character with that name.

“You know what?” he said. “I like that name.”

After delivering their baby on Monday morning, their OB-GYN, Dr. Randall Royal of Riverside Women’s Center in Bluffton and Beaufort, asked the couple what her name was.

“Juliet,” they told him.

You’re not going to believe this, he said. Just yesterday, he’d delivered a boy named Romeo right here in this hospital.

The coincidence of two babies being named Romeo and Juliet in the same hospital, and delivered by the same doctor, tickles so many people likely because it was once required reading for everyone.

But it does give you pause. It is kind of an inauspicious comparison.

In Shakespeare’s plays, the two families hate each other, of course, and Romeo and Juliet ... I’m assuming you’ve read it, because, like I said, everyone has, but if not, please close your eyes for this part ... die at the end.

“I feel like there’s a better ending,” Jovanny had joked earlier in his room.

Then again, the best part of the play is the romance, the plight of the young star-crossed lovers, and the ability to relate to all of it because you’re in middle school now and learning that love can be tragic and unrequited.

And maybe that’s more of what we remember.

“It’s such a popular theme,” Shifflett said of the young love. “And you hear all the songs ...”

Umana took out his phone Tuesday and played the song that Dr. Dennis Jacobs, who was in the birthing room with them Monday morning, had pulled up on his phone for the couple after their daughter was born.

It was “Romeo and Juliet,” by Dire Straits.

Are you a Harley-Davidson guy?

On Tuesday afternoon, the Hernandezes brought Romeo over to Juliet’s room.

It was the first time the ladies of the house were meeting.

They sat on the couch and chatted, their husbands nearby.

“What’s it like having a boy?” Jovanny asked Umana and Shifflett.

Boys, they told him, have a lot of energy. They like to run around and jump on the couch, but can also entertain themselves with a single toy car.

“When did he start talking?” Jovanny asked.

“Well, he doesn’t really yet,” Umana said.

“He babbles,” Shifflett added.

Jovanny said he can’t wait for Romeo to start talking. He’s looking forward to having conversations with him. He wants to know all his son’s opinions.

“I want to ask him ‘Are you a Harley-Davidson guy or a crotch-rocket guy?’ ” he said.

The two couples posed for photos, one of which would be sent to “Good Morning America.”

They marveled over the coincidence that both children’s middle names had the word “Angel” in them. Romeo Arcangel and Juliet Evangeline.

Then they discovered they shared the same due date: March 27.

All four were shocked all over again.

What? Oh my God! Can you believe it?

“My next delivery,” Morgan laughed, “is going to be really boring.”

This story was originally published March 21, 2017 at 9:09 PM with the headline "It took just 18 hours of being alive for this Romeo to meet his Juliet."