From Life. “I Got a Letter from a Woman I Never Knew”: She Said She Was My Sister

I had no siblings. I was an only child my whole life.

When I saw this letter in the mailbox, I thought it was a mistake.

A plain, white envelope, with my name and address handwritten on it, in a slightly uncertain, shaky hand.

I had no siblings. I have been an only child my whole life.

And yet, when I opened the envelope, I read something that froze my blood.

Dear Elizabeth,
I don't know how to begin this letter, since we've never met. But I have to tell you the truth. I'm your sister. My name is Anna, and I've been looking for answers for years. Our mother separated us.
Please meet me.
Anna

I sat down hard in the chair.

My heart was pounding like crazy.

This is some kind of joke? A mistake?

Or maybe something I was never supposed to know?

For the next few days, the letter lay on the table, and I was still looking at him. I didn't have the courage to reply.

I called my mother.

— Mom, is there something you haven't told me?

There was silence on the other end.

— Mom?

— What are you talking about? — Her voice sounded nervous.

— About Anna.

For the first time in my life I heard my mother paralyzed with fear.

A week later I was sitting in a café, waiting for Anna.

I didn't know what to expect.

And then she came.

She had my eyes.

My smile.

— It's you — she whispered, looking at me with such relief, as if I was the answer to all her questions.

And me?

I understood at that moment that my whole life had been one big lie.

Mom never told me the truth.

She never confessed that when I was a baby, she had another child. That she gave him away because she didn't have the strength, because my father had abandoned us, because she was afraid of the future.

Anna spent her childhood in an orphanage.

Me – in a warm, loving home.

And now we sat across from each other, strangers, even though we had the same blood.

— Why didn't you look for me? — she asked quietly.

I couldn't answer.

I didn't look because I didn't know I had to.

I didn't know that for so many years my sister had been living in the world, waiting every day for me to finally find her.

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