Hannah Drabeck

English 111

9/21/20

My Second Sister

The evening of December 19, 2018, my father confessed to me that I shared the same

blood with a woman living 170 miles away in Baltimore, Maryland.​ Reading this statement might

sound baffling,​ but a short answer to this madness is that my father got unprecedented results

back from a 23andMe DNA test.

During this time, my dad was battling stage 4 squamous cell cancer and my aunt

suggested that in case of the event of him passing, he should take an ancestry test for me and

my sister to have. When the results came back in the mail, the unthinkable happened; he found

out he had another daughter named Krista.

My dad waited to tell my full-sister, Olivia, and I once he contacted her because he

wanted to figure out her intentions, for she was well over 30 years old. Krista explained to him

that her mother, someone my dad briefly dated in the past, never spoke of her father. She had

taken the test years prior in hopes of finding out her biological fathers identity.

When the time came to tell my sister and I the news, we both had completely different

reactions; my sister's face immediately beamed with excitement while my heart began to sink. I

sat in silence trying to process information that felt like a dream while my head became

bombarded with emotions. A somber look fell upon my face as I watched my sister have a

completely opposite thought process, making me feel as if I was the loneliest person in the

universe.

Shortly after, I dashed to my room with a tear shedding down my cheek and a

burning sensation tingling up my throat from trying to hold the tears back. I didn't want the news
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of my new sister to affect the relationship my family already had. My sister had been my best

friend throughout my entire life and I didnt want anything to change that.

The following month, my family told me she was coming into town for a business trip the

approaching weekend. They planned a coffee date to meet her, still not knowing that the

situation ​continued to eat me up inside.

The day came way too quickly with no time left to spare to mentally prepare myself. My

mind went numb to any sort of emotion that I had previously felt. Walking into the coffee shop

felt surreal; the world felt like it stopped spinning the second my father opened the door and the

chilled breeze of the indoors touched my skin. She was sitting in the back of the coffee shop,

drink in hand, as the afternoon sun glistened on her brunette hair with a smile that resembled

my own.

Contrary to my feelings walking into the coffee date, it couldn’t have gone more normal .

We ​chatted for hours about everything imaginable, I felt like I had known her my entire life. My

feelings of grief slowly disappeared as I got to know the kind hearted, ambitious woman sitting

in front of me. I felt guilty that those thoughts had even crossed my mind in the first place.

Leaving the coffee shop, we departed our ways and a feeling of clarity inhabited my

mind. Listening to how her life was affected without a father figure put in perspective how

fortunate I am. Although my feelings were not invalid, sometimes the best method to realize how

much one has is to put oneself in another person's shoes.

To this day, I haven't seen her since. I'm not sure as to when i'll see her again, but only

time can tell. I've grown to learn from this experience that everything in life happens for a

reason.The past cannot be changed​, so when life throws curveballs, there's no option other than

to catch.