Orphaned twins who hadn’t seen each other since they were nine have been reunited at the age of 90 thanks to DNA.
Maurilia Chavez and Andrea Lopez were ripped apart in 1947 when their parents died and they and their eight siblings were divided among extended family.
Inexplicably, despite being twins, the pair were not sent to the same home and grew up hundreds of miles apart, not knowing if the other was alive or dead.
They only saw each other once more, four years later when they were back together at a family meeting for just one day. Then, nothing.
The moment orphaned twins Maurilia Chavez (right) and Andrea Lopez (left) were reunited after 81 years, having not seen each other since a one-day meeting aged nine
The long-lost twins pose with a fraction of their extended family, many of whom met for the first time that day
For decades they led their own lives, marrying, having children, and retiring to different states – but the pain never left them.
Lopez, who was living in Las Vegas, took a genetic test around Thanksgiving last year and was overwhelmed to be told that her sister was alive and living in Denver.
Soon they were able to catch up over an hours-long phone call, and Lopez booked a flight for a heartwarming reunion with Chavez last December.
Family filmed the moment the long-lost twins embraced for the first time since they were little girls, weeping tears of joy.
‘My little sister, I really wanted to see you, to have you with me, my beautiful little sister,’ Lopez said in Spanish as they held each other.
Exactly how they found each other is unclear, but thousands of Americans have uploaded their DNA to public databases such as 23andme in recent years, which helped them track down unknown relatives.
The twins were ripped apart in 1947 when their parents (pictured in old photos) died and they and their eight siblings were divided among extended family
Lopez, who was living in Las Vegas, took a genetic test around Thanksgiving last year and was overwhelmed to be told that her sister was alive and living in Denver
Family filmed the moment the long-lost twins embraced for the first time since they were little girls, weeping tears of joy
Chavez and Lopez squabbled about who was the eldest, Lopez insisting she was born six minutes earlier than her twin.
‘When I see my sister, I get so happy, I don’t do nothing but cry and hug her and squish her,’ Lopez told News 9 months after their reunion.
‘It was like the first time I see her in my life because 81 years is too long… I remember just a little bit, a little, little bit, me too,’
Lopez described the moment they first heard each other’s voices, changed by time and life, after eight decades.
‘You told me ‘Are you really Andrea?’ You don’t recognize my voice? And she say, ‘A little bit’ and I say, ‘Well, I recognize your voice real good and I know you my sister,” she said.
Chavez and Lopez squabbled about who was the eldest, Lopez insisting she was born six minutes earlier than her twin
‘My little sister, I really wanted to see you, to have you with me, my beautiful little sister,’ Lopez said in Spanish as they held each other
The sisters wanted to spend as much time together as possible, so they slept in Chavez’s bed the night after Lopez arrived.
But Chavez only had a single bed, so Lopez fell out in the middle of the night – much to her sister’s amusement.
‘I am more happiest person in the world because I never thought I was going to see her again and the other reason I cry like a baby, I was lonely I have a beautiful family but what I really need was my sister,’ Chavez said.
Three of their siblings are still alive, all in their 80s and 90s and Lopez and Chavez meeting has prompted other meetings between them, and their extended families.
One brother drove from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to visit Lopez, and Lopez went to Texas to visit their 95-year-old elder brother.
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