For years they were told that they looked alike and DNA revealed that the four were sisters: «It was the greatest gift»

For almost 60 years, their lives went their separate ways without knowing that, in reality, They were part of the same story. Kristelle Harrington y Rachelle Dyertoday 59 years old, and Lsaid Van57, and Shannon Nicholl, 55, grew up believing their family was complete. No one imagined that they existed other sisters waiting to be discovered.

The story began in 1966, when a young woman named Janice gave birth twins. Given the impossibility of taking care of them, he made the decision to give them away. adoption. So, Kristelle and Rachelle grew up in Seattlecity in state of Washington, far from his biological mother and without information about his origins.

Two years later, and more than 4,000 kilometers away, Janice became a mother again. In Virginia Beach were born Lisa y Shannonfruit of a marriage and a new stage of your life.

They grew up together, without knowing that her mother had had two other daughters before. “Lisa and I had no idea that our mother had given birth to twin girls,” Shannon said on the show. Good Morning America. For that reason, he never looked for sisters or suspected that his family could be bigger.

When life began to put them together

Destiny began to bring them closer in 2004when Rachelle moved from Seattle to Virginia Beach, where she began to move in the same social circle as Shannon after a mutual friend introduced them when she noticed their physical resemblance, although neither of them imagined that that chance encounter brought them together. two biological sisters.

After meeting in several meetings, the bond crossed again five years later when Rachelle and Shannon met at a concert by the country singer, Kenny Chesneyalong with another mutual friend.

During the show, they took a photo, which over time would become a key piece of this story. Although they were only added on Facebook, each one continued with her life for almost a decade,

The photo taken at the concert they shared, a key piece to complete their story. Photo: Video capture

The coincidences did not end there. Shannon had been a student teacher at Tallwood Primary School, the same school where Rachelle later began teaching. The resemblance once again caught the attention of the school staff, who I couldn’t believe how similar they were in gestures, voice and way of expressing themselves..

The DNA that revealed an unexpected family link

In 2017, Rachelle’s husband proposed to get her a DNA test to learn more about your ancestry. She accepted and received the results a year later, although at the time she did not pay attention to the possible family coincidences.

Only two years later, encouraged by the director of the school where she works and within the framework of a project on ancestors, did she decide to review those connections.

Analyzing the results, he found a cousin named Tracy, who revealed to him the truth that he had two half-sisters in Virginia Beachincluding Shannon. At that moment, Rachelle remembered the photo from the concert and realized that she had already met one of her sisters without knowing it.

Since they already knew each other, the news was easier to tell and they planned a special dinner to meet face to face, first between three sisters and, days later, with the arrival of the fourth, to get to know each other and put together the pieces of a shared history.

It was an exciting moment in which the twins finally found the answer to the question that had accompanied them since they were children, whether other siblings existed somewhere.

The first meeting was a special dinner in February 2019. Photo: Fcb Kristelle R Harrington

DNA confirmed that the four women were Janice’s daughterswho did not arrive alive to see the meeting of all his daughters. “I feel like I was a year and a half late because that was when our birth mother passed away,” Rachelle said in GMA.

Although they will be left wanting to ask their mother many questions, they all agree that she helped them get to know each other: «The four of us feel that she had a lot to do with this, uniting us at this moment in our lives. We all needed it.»

“My two kids came to dinner and every time the four of us laughed they put their hands over our mouths because they couldn’t believe how much alike we were,” recalled Shannon, who considers finding her sisters «the greatest gift you can imagine”.

They discovered that they are sisters thanks to a DNA test. Photo: FCB Kristelle R Harrington

From that day on, the sisters began to make up for lost time. They shared vacations—the first in New York—, outings and long talks. Each one introduced her family and opened her personal story to rebuildbetween laughter and tears, the years they did not live together.