Sisters who lived minutes apart and had no idea the other existed met after 56 years
We love bringing you feel-good tales, and this one was just too good to keep to ourselves. Imagine going your entire life without knowing you have a sibling. Diane Ward and Mary McLaughlin experienced exactly this.
The women were born three years apart and adopted, but neither was aware of the other’s existence until they submitted a DNA test through MyHeritage. It took them 56 years to discover each other.
McLaughlin and Ward grew up visiting adoptive relatives in one other’s cities and had no idea. McLaughlin lived in Detroit, Michigan, and travelled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to see relatives.
Ward lived in Pittsburgh and travelled to Detroit to see relatives. It seemed as if fate was waiting for them to cross paths. And it gets weirder from there. As children, both sisters lived in Michigan, and curiously enough, they lived only a few blocks apart.
McLaughlin had an on-again, off-again relationship with their biological mother, but after being left with the babysitter when their mother did not return, the babysitter and her husband became her legal guardians.
According to People, McLaughlin’s mother became a «peripheral figure» in her life. McLaughlin told the Mirror that she was never legally adopted because her mother refused to give up custody.
Unfortunately, their mother died of breast cancer when McLaughlin was 26, long before the two sisters were reunited.
According to Ward, «we were basically just crossing back and forth most of our childhood.» Apparently, the two went to the same bakery but never met. Ward went on, «It’s just strange.» Strangely creepy. We were just in the same circle the entire time.»
At-home DNA testing, which have grown in popularity in recent years, have been known to uncover family secrets, confirm suspicions, or, if your family is a little less scandalous, reveal your ancestry. You spit into a tube and then wait.
You eventually get an email with your ancestry results, which is usually nothing more thrilling than discovering that Grandma Gina lied and you aren’t Italian after all. Only a few DNA testers are as good as McLaughlin.
