They met as teens and felt an instant connection. Decades later, DNA proved they’re actually sisters

Kayla McLean · CBC Radio

· Posted: Aug 19, 2026 11:31 AM EDT | Last Updated: 8 minutes ago

LISTEN | Meena Geltink describes the remarkable discovery:

More than four decades ago, somewhere amid the bustling streets of Mumbai, India, two baby girls were born.

Adopted by different families in the Netherlands, Meena Geltink, 43, and Minal Tijssen, 44, grew up mere hours away from each other.

But their paths never crossed until one day in 1996, when as teenagers, they happened to attend an event organized for adoptees in the Netherlands. 

They only met because their friends spotted them first and noticed an uncanny resemblance between the two girls. Not to mention the pair felt an instant connection, Geltink says.

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“We spoke, we went to the bathroom, we looked at the mirror, and I saw her, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, she has my nose and she has my eyes,'” Geltink told As It Happens guest host Saroja Coehlo. “And we laughed about it.”

But the possibility that they could actually be sisters?

“We wished and we talked about it,” Geltink recalled.

The pair exchanged contact information that day, then kept in touch through letters and emails.

Meena Geltink (top right, bottom left) as a child and Minal Tijssen (top left, bottom right) as a child. (Submitted by Meena Geltink)

But life, as it often does, got in the way. The friends slowly lost touch for nearly three decades.

Eventually, both women started families and Tijssen moved to France.

During those 28 years, Geltink says she joined another adoptee group in the Netherlands for people adopted from India, many of whom had taken MyHeritage DNA tests. In 2017, she decided to give it a shot, too.

“I thought, oh, wow, maybe there is someone out there, some relatives,” she said. “I was just curious about it.”

But it wasn’t until April that the test would change both women’s lives.

Minal Tijssen (left) and Meena Geltink (right) as teens in a picture taken inside a Utrecht photo booth after they met up for a day of shopping. (Submitted by Meena Geltink)

Geltink says she was putting her son to bed when she got a Facebook message from Tijssen, who had taken the test this year.

“She said, ‘Hey, do you remember me? I’m Minal. We shared some letters when we were young,'” Geltink recalled. “She said, ‘Maybe we are sisters because I got a DNA match. Is this your profile on MyHeritage?’”

As it turned out, Geltink had also received the same notification from MyHeritage: a 100 per cent probability that she and Tijssen were sisters. 

The test showed they shared 36.5 per cent of their DNA — consistent with the pair being full siblings.

Minal Tijssen (left) and Meena Geltink (right) as teens in Tijssen's parents' backyard in 1996. (Submitted by Meena Geltink)

According to MyHeritage spokesperson Margaux Stelman, such a discovery is rare even for the genealogy platform, particularly given the “unbelievable chain of coincidences” that led the women to each other.

“While it’s more common for people who connect with close family through MyHeritage DNA to find half-siblings, parents, or extended relatives, having two full sisters unknowingly grow up in the same circle is exceptionally rare,” Stelman said in a statement to CBC News.

PHOTOS | Meena Geltink and Minal Tijssen meet for the first time since discovering they're related:

Earlier this month, in a park in Den Bosch, Netherlands, the long-lost siblings met in person for the first time since discovering they were related. Happy tears flowed freely, along with the realization, Geltink says, that each sister had finally found what — or who — they had been subconsciously looking for all their lives.

“In our young years, we felt a little bit lonely sometimes and searching for that one thing we didn’t have,” said Geltink. “And I felt it with her and she felt it with me as well."

"We didn’t know that we were real sisters back then and now everything fell into place. I thought, ‘You’re my missing puzzle piece.’”

She says both of their partners were also there for the emotional reunion; the moment made even more special by the realization the sisters now have each other to lean on for both the difficult and happy times in life.

“In that moment, when I grabbed her and all those tears were just falling from eyes, it was just an amazing moment,” said Geltink. “I thought, I’m never going to let you go now.”