For more than four decades, Meena Geltink and Minal Tijssen lived separate lives in the Netherlands, growing up in loving Dutch families and never knowing that they had a biological sister living just a short distance away.
Both women were born in India and were left as infants at orphanages before being adopted by families in the Netherlands. They grew up in different homes, with different families, but their lives unexpectedly crossed when they were teenagers.
At the time, neither woman knew that the person standing in front of her could one day turn out to be her sister.
Nearly 40 years after they were separated as babies, a DNA test has finally revealed the truth — Meena and Minal are biological sisters.
A connection they could not explain
Meena, now 43 and a mother of three, and Minal, 44, first met as teenagers in 1996 at a gathering for adopted children.
Although they had never met before, the two girls immediately felt a strong connection.
Their friends were also struck by how much they looked alike. The girls exchanged addresses and stayed in contact after the gathering. During their correspondence, they even jokingly called each other “sis”.
At the time, however, the word was simply a playful nickname between two friends.
Neither knew that it was actually much closer to the truth than they could have imagined.
Eventually, life took them in different directions. They lost contact and did not speak to each other for about 15 years.
Two lives, one missing piece
Both women grew up in the Netherlands with adoptive families.
Minal said she had no information about her biological relatives. She was loved by her Dutch parents and grew up alongside siblings, but she still carried a feeling of loneliness and an unanswered question about where she came from. Meena also carried a similar feeling.
For years, she felt that something was missing from her life, although she could not explain exactly what it was.
Looking back, the discovery of her sister helped make sense of that feeling.
“It’s like a missing puzzle piece has been found,” Meena said, describing the overwhelming happiness she felt after learning the truth.
A DNA result changed everything
The sisters’ lives changed in April when Minal received the results of a DNA test through MyHeritage.
She was sitting on her couch when a notification appeared on her phone telling her that her DNA results were ready. Then she saw something she never expected.
The result identified a person named “Mina” as her sister.
Minal could hardly believe what she was seeing.
At first, she did not immediately realise that the person identified through the DNA test was the same girl she had met as a teenager almost 30 years earlier.
She searched for Meena on social media and looked through her photographs. That was when the connection became clear.
The friend she had once met as a teenager was not simply someone who looked like her or felt strangely familiar. She was her biological sister.
The DNA test showed a rare 100 per cent match between the two women.
“We were friends before we were sisters”
The discovery brought back memories of their first meeting in 1996.
What had once seemed like an unusual friendship suddenly made sense.
Minal described the situation simply: they had already been sisters all along; they just did not know it.
The women quickly became close again. Since learning about their biological relationship in April, they have spent hours every day talking and messaging each other.
After years of wondering about their origins, they now have someone who shares the same biological family history.
An emotional reunion after decades
The sisters finally met again in person in the Netherlands after discovering the DNA connection.
Their reunion was filled with tears, hugs and laughter.
They also took their first selfie together as sisters — a simple moment that carried decades of unanswered questions behind it.
During the emotional meeting, Meena told Minal how she felt when she finally saw her again.
“When I see you, it’s like I’m home,” she told her sister.
For Minal, the meeting was equally emotional. The woman she had once known as a teenage friend was now part of her family in a way neither of them had ever imagined.
A friendship that was secretly a family bond
Today, Minal lives in France with her partner and their two sons, while Meena lives in the Netherlands with her family.
Their lives had taken different paths, but their story had been connected from the beginning.
They had met as teenagers without knowing their shared past. Their friends had noticed their resemblance. They had even called each other “sis” as a joke.
Years later, science provided the answer that neither had been able to find on her own.
The DNA test did more than identify a biological relationship. It helped two women understand a connection they had felt decades earlier but could never explain.
What began as an unexpected friendship in 1996 has now become a family reunion nearly 40 years after the two sisters were separated as infants.
As Minal put it, they were sisters the whole time — they simply did not know it.
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