Soul sisters, reunited!
Two childhood friends discovered through a DNA test they are long-lost sisters decades after being adopted — completing a deep “missing piece” of their personal identities, they said.
Meena and Minal were adopted from an orphanage in India 40 years ago and grew up 100 miles apart in the Netherlands, both with feelings of loneliness and longing for answers about their biological families, they said.
“When I see you, it’s like I’m home,” Meena Geltink, 43, told her sibling at a joyful and tearful reunion Tuesday.
Meena and Minal learned through a DNA test they are biological sisters and were reunited in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. REUTERS
“For years, I felt a hole in my heart,” said Geltink, who is a mother of three. “It’s like a missing puzzle piece has been found.”
The pair first became friends in 1996 at a meet-up for adopted kids, where they felt drawn to each other without knowing they were sisters.
People commented on how much alike they looked and the girls jokingly called each other “sis” before swapping addresses.
They fell out of touch for 15 years before learning via a MyHeritage DNA test in April they were a 100% sibling match.
The long-lost sisters became friends as teens in 1996 without knowing they were siblings. REUTERS
Minal Tijssen, 44, who lives in France with her partner and two sons, was sitting on the couch in April when her phone pinged with the DNA results.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
Meena and Minal learned in April they are biological sisters. REUTERS
Tijssen didn’t realize it was the same teenage girl she had chemistry with 30 years ago, until she found her on social media and looked at photos.
She had no record of any birth relatives and felt loved by her adopted family but still felt lingering loneliness throughout life, she said.
At their first meeting since learning they were sisters, in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, the women hugged, laughed and cried. They also snapped a selfie together, beaming.
“We were friends before we were sisters,” Tijssen said. “We were sisters the whole time, but we didn’t know.”
With Post wires
