Sometimes, the hospital is more than a place for procedures, it’s a place for miracles. In one room, a mother may be giving birth to her first child, celebrating a new addition to the family. In another room, family members may be huddled around a patient recovering from a risky surgery.
For two sisters who were separated decades ago in South Korea, a Florida hospital brought a different kind of miracle: a family reunion.
Pok-Nam Shin and Eun-Sook are half sisters, two years apart, born to an alcoholic father. According to the Sarasota-Herald Tribune, Shin’s mother had passed away when she was young, leaving her with nothing but memories of her father. Although her father remarried, Pok-Nam recalls waking up one night to see her stepmother and younger sibling Eun-Sook make their escape.
Years later, their father would pass away after wandering in front of a train and Shin would find herself in an orphanage.
As reported by The Guardian, in 1978, Pok-Nam would become Holly Hoyle O’Brien after being adopted by an American family and moving to the state of Virginia. Likewise, in 1976, Eun-Sook would also be adopted, relocating to New York state and become Meagan Hughes. These sisters would be separated for over 40 years, although a physical distance of only 300 miles would be between them.
Over time, memories of her father and missing sister would boil over for Holly. She told The Star that one night, she woke up and told her family, “[…] my daddy died, I have a sister, we need to find her.”
Early in 2015, both women were hired at Sarasota’s Doctor’s Hospital. If being hired at the same hospital wasn’t coincidence enough, both were hired to work on the fourth floor, and the same 7:00 am to 7:30 pm shift.
“One of the patients told me there was another nurse, named Meagan, who was from Korea,” O’Brien told the Herald-Tribune. “She said you should talk to her, maybe you’re from the same town.”
Once the two women began spending time with each other, the noticed a number of similarities. Both were from Korea, were adopted by American families from an orphanage, and even shared the same maiden name.
The two began to have their suspicions that they may be related and took a DNA test to see if their hunches had any merit.
“I was like, this is too good to be true. I said we’ve got to do the DNA test, it’s the only way we’ll get the truth out of the whole thing,” O’Brien told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
In August of that year, Hughes and O’Brien’s suspicions were confirmed.
Hughes told the Herald-Tribune, “when I heard from Holly, my first reaction was like, ‘Oh my God.’ I was in shock, I was numb. I have a sister.”
O’Brien welcomes not only her sister into her family but also takes up the role as aunt to Meagan’s two daughters.
In a video produced by the Herald-Tribune, O’Brien says with tears in her eyes, “I have this very strong belief that God must be like, whatever I’ve done, I must’ve done something good in my life.”
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