Friends for 30 years, sisters all along: DNA test reunites two adopted Indian women in Netherlands

TWO women who were left as infants at orphanages in India and grew up in separate adoptive families in the Netherlands have discovered, 40 years later, that they are biological sisters — a bond that was hiding in plain sight since their teenage years, Reuters reported.

Childhood friends, without knowing why

Meena and Minal grew up just a short drive apart in the Netherlands, unaware that the other existed, let alone that they were sisters. As teenagers in 1996, while living around 100 miles (130 km) apart, they crossed paths at a gathering for adopted children and felt an unusually strong connection, the news agency reported.

Their friends were struck by how alike they looked, and the girls swapped addresses. In their letters to each other, they jokingly used the nickname "sis" — not knowing how literally true it was — before losing touch for 15 years.

"A hole in my heart"

"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."

At an emotional reunion in the Netherlands on Tuesday, Geltink told her sister: "When I see you, it's like I'm home."

A 100% match, discovered in April

The sisters found out about their biological relationship through a MyHeritage DNA test in April, which returned a rare 100% match — confirmation, finally, of the connection they had sensed decades earlier as teenagers. Since then, they have spent hours every day talking and messaging each other.

Growing up without answers

Minal Tijssen, 44, said she had no record of any birth relatives. She said she felt loved growing up with her Dutch parents and siblings, but she also described a deep loneliness that ran alongside that love — the kind that comes from not knowing where you come from.

Their first meeting since learning they were related was marked by tears, hugs and laughter, followed by their first selfie together as sisters.

A pop-up notification, and a moment she couldn't believe

Tijssen, who lives in France with her partner and two sons, was sitting on the couch in April when a pop-up on her phone told her that her DNA results were ready.

"'Mina: Sister.' I couldn't believe it," she said.

“We were sisters the whole time, but we didn't know."

Looking back at their teenage friendship in a new light, Tijssen reflected on what it means to have been close to a sibling without realising it. "We were friends before we were sisters," she said. "We were sisters the whole time, but we didn't know."

At first, Tijssen did not immediately realise that the woman she had reconnected with was the same teenage girl who had clung to her when they first met 30 years earlier. It only sank in when she found her on social media and looked through old photos. "Now it's for real," she said.