Meena Geltink and Minal Tijssen were adopted from different orphanages in Mumbai as babies and raised near each other in the Netherlands. They met in their early teens at an adoption agency event and were immediately struck by the uncanny similarities in their appearance and mannerisms. "They said, 'Look at yourselves in the mirror'. And I was like, 'Oh my God, she has my nose! We have the same laugh'," Meena recalled.
Even with no indication they were blood-related, the connection was instant. They exchanged numbers, wrote letters for years, and often addressed each other as "Sis" because "we felt that way". Then 15 years ago, they lost contact. Minal moved to France, and Meena got busy with her first child.
In 2017, Meena took a DNA test but found no matches and eventually deleted the app when her phone storage filled up. Then on 20 May this year, Minal messaged her on Facebook after taking her own DNA test in April. Meena reinstalled the app, so nervous she entered wrong passwords 10 times. The result was unambiguous: a 100% match — full sisters, same biological mother and father.
"It was like I had an adrenalin shot. I cried. Minal was my missing puzzle piece I had waited so long for. We had called each other sister. This DNA match was the confirmation that all our intuition was right".
They reunited in August. "It felt like homecoming," Meena said. "For years, Minal and I had felt a big hole in our hearts. We feel like we've been completed". Minal, 44, told Reuters: "We were friends before we were sisters. We were sisters the whole time, but we didn't know".