Adopted sisters reunite after DNA test reveals their relationship
Meena Geltink and Minal Tijssen, who were raised in different adoptive families in the Netherlands, have discovered they are biological sisters after a DNA test revealed a 100% match, reports BritPanorama.
The two women, who were both left as infants at orphanages in India, grew up just a short drive apart without knowledge of each other’s existence. Their paths crossed for the first time in 1996 at a gathering for adopted children, where they felt an inexplicable bond.
At that meeting, friends of both remarked on the striking resemblance between them, leading the girls to exchange addresses. Though they referred to each other as ‘sis’ in their correspondence, life took them in different directions, and they lost contact for 15 years.
“For years, I felt a hole in my heart,” Geltink, now 43 and a mother of three, expressed at their emotional reunion. “It’s like a missing puzzle piece has been found.” In a moving moment during their meeting, she told Tijssen, “When I see you, it’s like I’m home.”
Following their reconnection through the MyHeritage test in April, the sisters have been communicating daily, immersing themselves in each other’s lives. Tijssen, 44, who lives in France with her partner and two sons, shared her feelings of solitude growing up despite being embraced by her Dutch family.
Their first encounter since learning about their relationship was filled with joy, tears, and laughter. Tijssen reminisced about discovering her DNA results while relaxing at home: “I couldn’t believe it,” she said, recalling the notification that her sister had been found. “We were friends before we were sisters.”
Initially, Tijssen did not recognize Geltink as the teenage girl who had clung to her during their first meeting. It only became clear when she searched for her on social media, observing their shared features in photographs. “Now it’s for real,” she concluded.
The emotional whirlwind of their reunion underscores the complex ways in which familial ties can be woven back together, blurring the lines of distance and time.
