Childhood friends find ‘missing piece’ when DNA test reveals they are sisters

HERTOGENBOSCH, Netherlands — Meena and Minal were left as infants at orphanages in India ⁠and grew up in different adoptive families in the Netherlands, just a short drive apart.

HERTOGENBOSCH, Netherlands — Meena and Minal were left as infants at orphanages in India ⁠and grew up in different adoptive families in the Netherlands, just a short drive apart. Now, 40 years later, a DNA test has shown that the childhood friends are biological sisters.

Growing up, neither was aware that they had a sister. Then, as teenagers in ⁠1996, while living just 100 miles apart, ⁠they crossed paths at a gathering for adopted children and felt an unusually strong connection.

Their friends were amazed by their likeness and ⁠the girls swapped addresses. In correspondence, they jokingly called each other ‘sis’ before losing touch ​for ⁠15 years.

“For years, I felt ‌a hole in my heart,” said Meena Geltink, 43, a mother of three, struggling to put words to her overwhelming feeling of joy. “It’s like a missing ‌puzzle piece has been found.”

Geltink told her sister ‌on Tuesday at an emotional reunion in the Netherlands: “When I see you, it’s like I’m home.”