Family are one of those things that, even though you can’t stand to be around them sometimes, you still love them. They’re a part of you, whether you like it or not.
For some people, finding their family is a life-long journey. We like to think that fate might play a role in making sure everything turns out ok, but it’s always nice to have some evidence of that. Well if you’re looking for evidence that fate loves family, check out these eight stories. They’re amazing family reunions that you’ll struggle to believe.
1. A Writing Relationship
In 1980, a troubled teenager from Tampa, Florida named Leslie Parker gave birth to a daughter. Just a year later, she had another daughter, and decided to give them both up for adoption. The older daughter was named Lizzie Valverde and grew up with a family in New Jersey. The younger was named Katy Olson and was raised in both Florida and Iowa.
When they were both in their 30s, the girls moved to New York City and both enrolled in the same school: Columbia University’s School of General Studies. Even more interesting is they both signed up for the same literary reporting class. On the first class in January of 2013, the students sat around a table and introduced themselves to the group. As soon as Valverde told her story, with some small details of her birthday and adoption story, Olson knew that the woman was her sister.
Unable to wait, Olson approached Valverde after class and blurted out that she believed they were related. Valverde had no idea she even had a biological sister, so she was understandably stunned. Now, the two women are close, and have both graduating with a degree in creative writing with one amazing story to tell.
2. Doppelgängers On The Track
When Jordan Dickerson was just three months old, she was adopted by the Dickerson family in Washington, DC. She lived a pretty normal life until 2012 when, at aged 17, she joined the track team of her high school. At a track meet in January of 2013, one of Jordan’s friends noticed that a girl on the competing track team bore an eerie resemblance to Jordan. Her name was Robin Jeter.
Also seeing the similarities, Jordan asked her mum to check the adoption papers, where it was confirmed that Jordan’s birth name was indeed Jeter. The girls exchanged numbers at the meet and later the same night, Jordan called Robin to tell her that she believed she was her long-lost sister. Robin, who had been raised in the foster care system, had no idea that she had a sister, only that she had a brother. The girls were born just over nine months apart, and recently confirmed their relationship with a DNA test.
3. An Unexpected Delivery
In 2009, a 35-year-old man named Gary Nisbet got a new delivery partner at the retail bedding company in Maine where he had been working for seven years. The man’s name was Randy Joubert, and as soon as the two began working together, they started getting comments about how similar they appeared. They got to know each other more and discovered that they had gone to rival high schools, and grown up in neighbouring towns.
Joubert had already been searching for more information about his birth parents, and was able to get his original birth certificate that provided him with the names of his biological parents and the original first name of his younger brother. With these details, Joubert went to Nisbet and started asking questions: was he adopted, did he knew his birth parents’ names. Nisbet did, and was shocked when the details matched because he had no idea he had a biological brother.
The story exploded in the media, with their brother’s employer equally shocked at the unbelievable coincidence. But it got even better, because with all the media coverage, the men were able to reconnect with their biological half-sister, who heard their story in the press.
4. Good Neighbours
The world is both so big, and so very small, as brothers Stephen Goosney and Tommy Larkin discovered in 2010. The boys had been born in Newfoundland, Canada to an unidentified women, Larkin in 1969 and Goosney a year and a half later. Both of them had been adopted out, growing up in small towns in Newfoundland. Larkin started searching for his family early on, but didn’t have any luck until many years later, in 2010.
After talking on the phone with a representative of the adoption agency, Larkin was able to uncover the name of his brother, Stephen Goosney. The woman at the agency kept asking Larkin if he know the name, but he did not. When the agency called again to give him the address of the house, Larkin realised it was almost?directly across the street. Both men had moved to the same town and the same street just months earlier, and Larkin could see Goosney’s home from his living room.
Even more incredible was that the two had been living on the same street for more than two years, with Goosney moving closer about seven months earlier. When Goosney came home, Larkin just gave him a call, explained the situation, and wondered on over there! Since the story made headlines, the brothers have also been united with their two younger sisters.
5. A Hawaiian Coincidence
Rick Hill went on holiday in April of 2011 with his partner, Maureen and their three children to Hawaii. Originally from Massachusetts, the family?were exploring the islands and decided to take a last minute trip to Waikiki Beach on the 25th of April. There was another man on the beach that day, Joe Parker, who had also ended up there at the last minute on a work engagement.
When Parker saw Maureen trying to capture a family snapshot, he offered to take the photograph. However, instead of asking them to say cheese, he told them to say “Leominster” which is the town directly next to Hill’s hometown. Parker told Hill that he was from Leominster, but had moved to Hawaii. The two men, amazed by the coincidence, began name dropping to see if they had mutual connections.
One name in particular drew Hill’s attention: Dickie Halligan. Hill knew him because he was his father. Incredibly, he was Parker’s father, too and the men were actually half-brothers! Parker had been raised in foster care, believing for most of his life that Halligan was his uncle. Hill was raised by his mother and step-father and had met his father, but many years ago. All of that because they both decided to go on a trip to the beach!
6. The Delivery Man & The Cashier
In October of 1985, a woman named Christine Tallady gave birth to a son. She was a single mum, and didn’t believe she could handle keeping the child, so she adopted him out to a loving family who named him Steve Flaig.?Years later,?she married and had two other children, but her firstborn always stuck in her mind.
The boy, Steve Flaig, started looking for his birth mother the moment he turned 18 in 2003, but for years, he had no luck. When he was 20, he got a job as a delivery driver at Lowe’s in Grand Rapids, Michigan and eventually gave up, thinking he would never find her.
Then in 2007, he realised that he had in fact been spelling his mother’s name wrong the entire time, which is why he hadn’t been able to find her. When he searched the correct spelling, he found that his birth mother lived very close to him, and even closer to Lowe’s where he worked. On a gamble, he asked?his boss if he knew a woman named Christine Tallady. His boss certainly did, she was the head cashier at the store, hired just a few months before!
It took Steve almost two months to approach her, with the help of his adoption agency, but Christine was overjoyed to meet him. Their story made national headlines, and they even appeared on?The Ellen DeGeneres?Show.
7. A Happy Ending At Last
On the 28th of April 1997 in Cape Town, a baby girl was born to Celeste and Morne Nurse. They named her Zephany. Tragically, an unknown woman kidnapped Zephany from the hospital just two days later, on the 30th of April, while Celeste was sleeping. The family were devastated, and searched for the girl for many years, hoping against hope that they might one day meet her again, but imagining that she was probably long dead. The Nurse family went on to have three other children, but eventually, the strain of never knowing what happened to Zephany tore them apart.
Then in 2015, Cassidy Nurse, Zephany’s younger sister, started the 8th grade at a local high school. Unbelievably, Zephany was a senior at the same school, enrolled with a different name. Children were quick to realise how strangely similar the two girls looked, and commented on it. Cassidy went home and told her father about the 17-year-old who looked remarkably similar to her, and he connected the dots.
Morne met Zephany with Cassidy and chatted with her about her life. He was convinced she was his daughter. So he contacted the police and had a DNA test done that proved Zephany really was his daughter. The woman who raised Zephany was arrested, but her identity remains a secret.?And the Nurse family have a lifetime of catching up to do.
8. The Twinsters
In February of 2013, Sam Futerman, a 25-year-old actress?adoptee from Busan in South Korea, received a Facebook message from a stranger named Anais Bordier. A friend of Bordier’s had noticed the uncanny resemblance that Futerman bore to Bordier in a YouTube video, and sent her the details saying that she looked like Bordier’s doppelgänger. When Bordier read more about Futerman, she realised that they were both adopted from the same place, and had the same birthday. So she messaged her.
Futerman was just as shocked as Bordier by the similarities in their adoption stories and their appearance, and the girls struck up a friendship on video chat and eventually met. It was amazing how many things they had in common. When they met, they were wearing the same nail polish, they laugh in exactly the same way, both bite their nails and both can’t stand the taste of cooked carrots. Yet they had grown up on opposite sides of the world.
Their story got so much media attention that the girls decided to film a documentary about their experience. Apart of the documentary included a DNA test, where it was confirmed that the two really were identical twins. They have also since written a book.
Have you ever heard a story as crazy as this?
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