The sisters got separated in the 1970s and unknowingly worked side by side in a hospital.

They say that ‘God works in mysterious ways.’ Whether or not one believes in the existence of a higher being, some instances that are deemed ‘coincidence’ are so bizarre that it makes one wonder if there is someone up above pulling strings. One such coincidence occurred at the Doctors Hospital in Sarasota, Florida when two sisters who had been separated for over 40 years finally reunited.

What makes this even more mind-blowing is that they worked together for a while before realizing their true identities. This is the heart-touching story of Holly Hoyle O’Brien and Meagan Hughes, who started off knowing each other as nurses but ended up as siblings.

Separated Decades Ago

O’Brien and Hughes, originally born in South Korea with names Pok-Nam Shin and Eun-sook Shin, were orphaned from a very young age. The siblings lived with their alcoholic father but were separated when Meagan’s mother ran away with her.

Both of them were later adopted by American families and moved to the United States. Meagan lived with her new family in Kingston, New York, while Holly moved to Alexandria, Virginia. Each sister remembered the existence of the other but did not know if they would ever meet each other again. That was until fate decided to play its best hand.

Work Brought The Sisters Together

Hughes and O’Brien decided to become certified nurses, unbeknownst to each other. It was as if they had a soul connection. The older sister O’Brien was hired at the Doctors Hospital in Florida and was joined by the 44-year-old Hughes a few months later. As both of them were Korean and were newly hired, they started bonding quickly, becoming close friends.

Soon enough, the two ‘friends’ started getting to know about each other’s past and realized how eerily similar their lives had been. Orphaned kids who had an alcoholic father with a faint memory of a sister they had lost contact with. What was even more surprising for the two was that both of them had the same last Korean name: Shin.

Too Good To Be True

In the words of O’Brien herself, she thought that all the similarities were too good to be true. She was convinced that it was nothing but a mere coincidence because her new family contacted the orphanage years ago and found no records of a sibling. However, the urge to find out if Hughes really was her long-lost sister was too strong.

The two decided to get a DNA test, and surely enough, it came back positive. Both of them were shocked beyond belief and could not comprehend how life had just brought them back to each other — the unlikeliest of scenarios panned out perfectly four decades later.

O’Brien has since decided to spend as much time as she can with her ‘new’ family. The story of these lost sisters is a testament to the fact that life is full of twists and turns. Even in the unlikeliest of situations, one should never lose hope because, who knows, your co-worker might just turn out to be your long-lost sibling.