An 80-year-long search led two siblings to each other — but an empty seat filled them with grief

Ann Magliane and Nancy Frisbie, two biological sisters, didn't know anything about each other's existence until fate reunited them 80 years later. While Magliane was put in an orphanage in Pennsylvania, along with their brother, James, Frisbie, who was initially sent to live with their grandparents, was later placed in a different orphanage than her siblings, First for Women reported.

When Magliane turned 8, a local couple adopted her, giving her the family she needed. Shortly after, her adoptive mom's sister returned to adopt her brother, James, so that they could grow up together. Meanwhile, their eldest sibling, Frisbie, put in a different orphanage, was also adopted by two professors who gave her a beautiful life. She had everything that one wishes for, and Frisbie definitely loved every bit of her life, but she just couldn't stop thinking about her siblings. Magliane grew up pretty relaxed since she had no memory of having a sister, but James never really forgot about Frisbie; in fact, he kept searching for Frisbie for years. Life went on; Magliane got married and had kids, but James never started a family. A day before his 40th birthday, he finally decided to let Magliane know something that he had been struggling with — his never-ending thirst to reunite with their sister, Frisbie.

"I was shocked. I had no recollection of a sister," Magliane said, recalling her reaction to James' confession. Unfortunately, James could never meet Frisbie, as he passed away a few months later in a tragic accident. For the next 4 decades, Magliane spent her time mourning the death of her brother, and the separation from her sister she knew nothing about. However, things changed when Christine, her daughter, informed her about Frisbie, a woman who had been actively searching for her birth family. "My initial reaction was that it really seemed unbelievable. Could it really be — it had been 80 years! My head swam," Magliane recalled. 

Despite growing up in a loving family, Frisbie was always curious to find her siblings, and to make that possible, she had taken a DNA test after meeting Elsie, a genealogy researcher. On the other hand, Magliane's daughter, Christine, too, had registered her mom's DNA in hopes of finding out about her ancestry. Notably, after 7 years, Christine finally received a call, confirming a direct DNA match with a woman in Florida. Magliane couldn't wait any longer, and so she immediately called Frisbie's number, which Elsie had shared. "I’m coming to visit you," Frisbie said, as the sisters talked for hours on that call. Today, Frisbie and Magliane share a wonderful bond, but both wish that they had James with them. "We have each other now, we’re a big, happy family, and we’re going to make the best of every precious day," Magliane added.

Often, when kids are abandoned by their birth parents and are later adopted, people may assume that they tend to get so busy that they hardly think about their origin. However, contradicting this very notion, Ulrich Müller and Barbara Perry said that nearly 50% of adoptees search for their real family at some point in their lives. Now, adopted individuals may be completely satisfied with their lives, and still search for answers to why they were abandoned by their birth parents, and this curiosity is completely natural.