Woman Finds Sister 41 Years After Her Disappearance: ‘Overwhelming for Both of Us’

A woman in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, recently located her long lost sister after doing her own online investigation.

Four decades have passed since Wendy Smith last saw her sister, but all of that changed this fall, according to ABC 27.

Wendy was 13 when her sister, Miriam, and Miriam’s father, vanished.

“Him and my mom were separating and he just took off with her and left state and back then, you know computers weren’t that big of thing so we could just never find her,” Wendy recalled.

She says a bench warrant was issued for his arrest, but they did not have the resources to look for him at the time.

Six years ago, Wendy learned that her sister lived in Mooresburg, Tennessee, and when she discovered Miriam’s information online in October, she wrote her a letter.

“Then I kept the letter for probably about a month because I was just afraid to send it and finally one day I was like well I need to send this letter. I’m never going to know if I don’t send it,” Wendy noted.

Following a phone call back, the two sisters were finally in touch again after 41 years. Miriam was just five-years-old at the time of their separation.

“It was definitely exciting, very overwhelming for both of us,” Wendy explained, adding, “Just a lot of thoughts and emotions the whole way around.”

Now she, Miriam, and their mother, Marlene, speak on the phone regularly and hope to get together at some point in the near future.

A similar instance occurred recently when a woman in North Little Rock, Arkansas, was reunited with her biological family more than 50 years after her adoption.

“I’ve been searching for 54 years. I thought I was the only one, you know. I grew up alone,” said Debra Davis, who learned she had seven siblings.

“Although I discovered the sad news that my biological mother had been laid to rest only a year ago her prays brought us back together! I have a large family!! God is so good!” she wrote in a Facebook post.