This specific anecdote was simply too good for us to keep to ourselves since at Upworthy, we are always seeking for ways to make you feel better. Imagine not finding out that you had a sibling someplace else in the world for your entire life. Diane Ward and Mary McLaughlin were in a scenario extremely similar to that.
Despite the fact that they were both adopted as infants and were born three years apart, neither woman knew the other existed until they submitted their DNA to MyHeritage for testing. The gap between their first encounter and now was 56 years.
Without ever knowing they were connected, McLaughlin and Ward spent their early years traveling to the other person’s city to visit their adoptive families.
McLaughlin lived in Detroit, Michigan, but he had family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He would occasionally go see them there. Even though Ward lived in Pittsburgh, he frequently visited his family in Detroit. It seems as though fate was looking forward to the chance to connect the two of them. It only gets stranger.
It’s interesting to note that both of these sisters spent a portion of their childhoods living just a few blocks apart from one another in Michigan. It took a few months after one of the sisters discovered the existence of the other before they were ready to confront one another physically and have their first encounter.
Ward was always aware that she had been adopted, and she used the MyHeritage DNA tests to learn more about her ethnic background and perhaps track down her birth parents.
She had never considered the possibility that she had a sibling. The Mirror claims that Ward was the one to initiate the reunion after discovering a familial match with a maternal cousin who directed her to McLaughlin, who later underwent a DNA test. McLaughlin was the one who formally requested the test.
It’s amazing that after so many missed opportunities, these two were eventually able to connect with one another. The two of them may begin creating new memories together now that they are together.
