Orphaned sisters reunited by chance in work

Two orphaned sisters separated decades ago in Korea have been reunited after miraculously getting hired on the same floor of a southwest Florida hospital.

Holly Hoyle O’Brien was adopted by an American couple in 1978 when she was nine years old.

A few years earlier, her father had wandered into the path of a speeding train and she was forced to identify his body.

After that, she went to live in an orphanage in South Korea. Her stepmother had taken her younger half-sister years earlier and left. It is unclear where the two went.

O’Brien grew up in a in Alexandria Virginia with three sisters and six brothers. One night she woke up in tears, telling her parents: “My daddy died, I have a sister, we need to find her.”

Her adoptive mother contacted the orphanage but they had no record of a biological sister.

“But in my heart, I knew,” said O’Brien, now 46. “I knew she was out there somewhere.”

Her sister, Meagan Hughes, barely remembers her mother or the Korean orphanage where she ended up.

She was also adopted by an American family and grew up in Kingston, New York, about 500km from her sister in Virginia.

Earlier this year, O’Brien was hired at Bayfront Health Port Charlotte, working on the fourth floor with the medical surgical unit.

Two months later, Hughes, who had been working as a physical therapy assistant, was hired.

“One of the patients told me there was another nurse, named Meagan, who was from Korea. She said ‘you should talk to her, maybe you’re from the same town’,” said O’Brien.

Two hospital co-workers realize they are sisters after being separated in Korea 40 years ago. http://t.co/5XhjX0PAvL

— NTRSCTN (@NTRSCTN) October 12, 2015

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported that the two instantly connected and soon the similarities started adding up. DNA tests confirmed their suspicions.

“I’m like, this can’t be,” O’Brien said. “I was trembling, I was so excited, I was ecstatic.”

When Hughes finally heard the news she said, “I was in shock, I was numb. I have a sister.”

O’Brien does not have children but now finds she is an aunt to two nieces. She is already excited about the holidays.

“I have this very strong belief that God must be ... like, whatever I’ve done, I must’ve done something good in my life,” O’Brien said.