A young woman’s life took an unexpected turn when she came across a picture of a young homeless woman in a Facebook post and realized she looked exactly like her!
“Sandra, here, fast!” Emma motioned to Sandra, who had just entered their office. Sandra and Emma were best friends who worked for GenZ, an IT firm in New York. Sandra worked as a senior programmer, and her friend Emma worked as a test engineer.
Sandra’s day at work had begun the same way as any other. She had gotten up on time, had coffee and toast for breakfast, and arrived at the office around 9: 30 a.m.
However, when she walked into the office, everyone was looking strangely at her. In fact, she was about to walk up to her cubicle when Peter, another coder on her team, smirked and said, “I just found someone who looks as hot as you, Sandra. Guess I finally have a date!”
Peter was a jerk who used to hit on every other girl in their office. He had recently become obsessed with Sandra and had asked her out on several dates. Sandra, of course, was well aware that all Peter wanted to do was sleep with girls. So she ignored him and walked away to her cubicle.
She opened her files and began reviewing the previous day’s code when Emma ran to her desk with her laptop. “You have to see this, Sandra!”
“Can we do that later, Emma? I need to make a report first,” Sandra said, her eyes fixed on the computer screen.
“No way, babe! You remember all of us at work… We had joined a Facebook group? Okay, so Peter saw this post somewhere, and this woman…she looks exactly like you!”
“So?”
“So there’s a phone number and an address on the post, and it was only posted a day ago. Some users also shared a photo of the woman begging on the side of the road. She’s in a hospital, and the staff members are looking for anyone who can assist them in contacting the girl’s relatives. She was in an accident and has no recollection of what happened.”
“Well, if Peter sent it, it’s got to be something stupid! I don’t care, Emma,” Sandra stated, her gaze fixed on her computer screen. “Anyway, could you please forward the files Jacob sent? I have a report to write.”
“But, honey, you have to see this, believe me. The address and phone number are not forged. I verified it. And guess what? I did more research on it! There will be a monetary reward if you assist her in locating her relatives. It’s $10,000, Sandra!”
“Really?” Sandra paused her coding and moved her gaze to Emma’s laptop. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the post! The woman did have a striking resemblance to her!
“What if there’s a link between you two, Sandra? You grew up in an orphanage. She could be a member of your family! You’ve always wanted to know who your biological parents were! This could be a good opportunity!”
“But…”
“See, there’s no harm in checking it out,” Emma said quietly. “In any case, you haven’t taken a vacation in a long time. You can go check to see if she’s related to you!”
“Fine, I’ll do that,” Sandra said, hoping Emma was correct, and later that day, she applied for a leave of absence.
When Sandra arrived at the hospital the next day, she was delighted to discover the post was not a hoax. The woman, Carrie, had been in an accident a few days before and was suffering from memory loss.
Unfortunately, because she was unconscious, she couldn’t help Sandra much. However, Sandra was convinced that there was some connection between them for sure. The woman was an exact replica of her!
So she decided to look into it further and speak to the hospital staff to find out what had happened and who had brought her there. The staff members informed her that she had been brought there by cops and that all she had in her bag was an ID that allowed them to identify the woman as Carrie Lewis.
Sandra asked for Carrie’s information, but they said the cops had her belongings and knew nothing about it. Two hours later, she was at a New York City police station, meeting Officer Ben Stewart.
“Look, sir, I understand you can’t just give me the details, but believe me, I need to know more about this woman! She might be my only blood relative!”
“Sorry, ma’am,” Officer Stewart said. “We went to her apartment based on the address on her ID and discovered she was kicked out from there two months ago. Since the investigation is ongoing, we can’t help you.”
“Sir, we look exactly like each other. Because I was born and raised in an orphanage, I had no idea about my blood relatives. Please, you must help me!”
“No, ma’am,” Officer Stewart said. “We must wait until the victim recovers. Even we need to talk to her, but we are waiting.”
Sandra left the police station, dejected, but decided to start looking for Carrie’s relations on her own. She extended her leave for a week in the hopes of uncovering some clues and began visiting the hospital daily, asking the doctors if there had been any improvement in Carrie’s health.
She had hoped Carrie would remember something that had happened, but a week had passed, and Carrie’s health had not improved. She had no recollection of anything.
So a week later, Sandra went back to work, but she didn’t give up. She was still in contact with the hospital, and she’d been making rounds to the police station to speak with officer Stewart for any leads.
Another week passed like that. One day, Sandra got off work, called the hospital for updates, and discovered Carrie’s parents had taken her home with them. The doctors said Carrie’s health had considerably improved, and though she didn’t remember much, she recognized her parents and was given a discharge.
Sandra was excited and nervous at the same time! She hadn’t been able to meet Carrie until now because, after hearing her story, the doctors had advised her that any stress for Carrie would be harmful. If she saw Sandra and learned something about her past that she was unaware of, it could have harmed her.
Sandra saw hope after learning about Carrie’s parents and that Carrie’s health had improved! She bribed a hospital nurse, begging her to give her Carrie’s parents’ address, and she was successful.
She paid them a visit the next day, and when she arrived, a middle-aged woman answered the door. She didn’t resemble Carrie at all, and her face bore a strange expression as if she had seen a ghost!
“Hi, I’m Sandra…Sandra Henderson. I wanted to….” Sandra had just begun to speak when the woman abruptly cut her off.
“Loo-Look, I am busy. You can come later,” she hesitantly replied, trying to close the door.
“But it’s urgent,” Sandra said, pausing. “I’m here to see Carrie. I know it sounds strange, but Carrie may be my only blood relative.”
The woman had lost her cool at this point. “She isn’t at home! I’m her mother, and I’m busy right now. So, please leave!” she yelled at Sandra and slammed the door on her face.
“But, please, listen to me at least once. Can you tell me when she’ll be home? I need to talk to her.” Sandra kept knocking and ringing the doorbell, but there was no answer. Dejected, she turned to leave the house then she heard a loud sound from inside.
“Go to your room, now! Do you understand?” she heard the woman yelling at someone.
Suddenly, the front door burst open, and Carrie came out. “I can’t believe it! It’s you! The papers….they were right!”
“Carrie!” Sandra said. “I just wanted to meet you, and….”
“You are my twin sister. Yes, it’s you! Your name’s Sandra, right? I overheard you conversing with my mother! There’s a lot we need to discuss. Let’s go somewhere else. I’d like to spend some time away from home.”
Sandra quietly nodded, and with that, the two boarded a taxi to a nearby cafe. When they arrived, Carrie revealed her whole story to Sandra.
It turned out Carrie discovered adoption papers in her mother’s closet three months before and took pictures of them with her phone. She recalled arguing with her parents after showing them the pictures.
Her parents claimed that they withheld the truth from her because they were unsure how she would react. However, Carrie was curious about what had happened to her biological parents, so she had been arguing with her adoptive parents daily.
“I recall leaving my parents’ house in a rage, determined to track down my biological mother. I was working part-time, but the pay was insufficient, and life in New York was expensive, so I couldn’t pay the rent and was kicked out. Then one day,” Carrie clutched her head. “Ahh…it hurts. I’m not sure what happened after that, but I was in a car accident on the road and then….the hospital… I got to meet Mom and Dad… They said they found me on some post online, something like that…..We weren’t really in touch after I left home….”
“You’re still not feeling well, Carrie. Let’s go to your house. We can do all of this later.”
“Oh no, please. We need to find our parents, Sandra. We can’t give up!”
“See, there’s a phone number on one of the pages,” Sandra said as she scrolled through the photos. “We can contact them, and we can do it anytime. You don’t look well. You’re sweating too.”
“No, I’m fine,” Carrie said as she drank some water. “The number’s dead, though. I already tried that.”
“So, what’s next?”
“We need to pay a visit to this maternity home. I looked it up on Google, and it’s still there in some seedy part of New York.”
“But are you fine with traveling? The place is quite far. I can go alone, and I’ll keep you updated,” Sandra proposed. Carrie gave a shaky nod. “We’re going to do this together, sis!” And with that, Sandra had no choice but to agree to Carrie’s request to accompany her to the maternity home.
However, nobody agreed to help them except an elderly nurse who recognized them right away when they arrived. She was there during Carrie and Sandra’s birth. She said their mother gave birth to them when she was only 16. Their father had abandoned her, and she didn’t have the financial means to support them, so she left them at the hospital.
A wealthy couple who had lost their child adopted one of the sisters. That was Carrie. However, nobody adopted Sandra, so she was placed in a maternity home for a few weeks before being transferred to an orphanage.
Sandra and Carrie couldn’t believe their ears! They were sisters! They hugged each other, teary-eyed, relieved to be reunited. However, they still needed to find their mother. Fortunately, the maternity home had their mother’s information, which assisted the girls in locating her.
When they arrived at the address, a frail woman answered the door. When she saw Sandra and Carrie, her eyes welled up as if she wasn’t really strange to the faces that had appeared on her doorstep.
“Mom!” Sandra said. “It’s us! We’re sorry it took us long, but we finally found you. You remember us, right? We discovered this at the maternity home where we were born. That’s you, hugging us in your arms,” Sandra said, showing her a photo they’d gotten from the maternity home.
The woman’s tears had no bounds at this point. She hugged her daughters and sobbed uncontrollably. “My children! I can’t believe we finally met after all these years! I am sorry for what I did. I’m sorry!”
Sandra and Carrie returned her hug, glad at being reunited with their mother.
Sandra later brought Carrie and their biological mother Kathy to her house, and they’ve been living together ever since. Carrie was still angry with her adoptive parents and didn’t communicate with them for a month. They did, however, pay a visit to Sandra’s house one day and apologized for keeping the truth from them.
Thankfully, everything is fine now, and Sandra and Carrie have two wonderful mothers and a caring father.