Updated
Updated · SportsChosun · Aug 12
DNA Test Reunites 2 Adopted Dutch Women as Biological Sisters After 30 Years
Updated
Updated · SportsChosun · Aug 12

DNA Test Reunites 2 Adopted Dutch Women as Biological Sisters After 30 Years

3 articles · Updated · SportsChosun · Aug 12

Summary

  • April DNA results led Minal Thiessen, 44, to discover that a close friend she had met in 1996 was actually her biological sister, Mena Geltingk, 43.
  • Both women were adopted from India and raised by separate families in the Netherlands, living about 130 kilometers apart while staying unaware of their family tie.
  • The match only clicked after Thiessen saw the testing app alert, found Geltingk on social media and recognized the name and photos from their teenage friendship.
  • In a recent reunion in 's-Hertogenbosch, the sisters embraced, cried and took selfies, then began talking for hours daily to make up for lost time.
  • For Geltingk, a mother of three, the discovery answered a long-running search for biological family and felt like finding a missing piece of a puzzle.

Insights

Can a simple DNA test truly heal the lifelong trauma of two sisters who unknowingly befriended each other as teenagers?
How did the international adoption system fail two biological sisters, leaving a DNA test decades later to uncover their hidden past?