Siblings reunited after 34 years

For these sisters it is only the beginning after finally reuniting after 34 years.
Ria van de Merwe was two years old and Mare Doubelo was only two months old, when their mother gave them up and they were placed in foster care.

Ria who is currently living in eMalahleni shared her side of the story. She and their brother who was also given up, moved from foster home to foster home, never really staying long enough for her to call anywhere home. She knew their father, who was allowed by the courts to see them over weekends sometimes, passed away when she was in Standard 6 while living in the school hostel.
When she was 20-years-old living in Kriel, she met Marlene and Jappie van Heerden who became her unofficial family and helped her through tough times.

She and her daughter are currently staying with them. Around 2006 she mustered up the resolve to start looking for her mother. Seeking closure took several years and did not end the way she had hoped. Ria found that her mother had passed away only a couple of months before she caught up with her.
In 2011 she began the search for her long lost sister, who she found out about during her years in foster care.

Again the search took several years as she appealed to various organisations and orphanages that might have information about her sister. As she posted about it and published it on the internet, the search seemed to turn up nothing. All they could do was pray that something might turn up one day. That day was late in November 2014 when she received a call from a minister at a church in Port Elizabeth saying that Ria’s sister Mare has been attending their church for the last 16 years.
Mare grew up in a similar way moving from one foster home, or home of safety for many years Mare was too young to remember any siblings so she had no idea that she had a sister or any blood relatives.

Mare is married and lives in Port Elizabeth with her husband and his family. During a Sunday service at their church Bass Peters, the minister, was sharing a story about a mother who gave up her child who was just a baby in his sermon not realizing that the person he was talking about was sitting in the audience.
She approached him after the service and told him about her history. She asked him to help her look for her mother and he agreed, but his search easily turned up another name, the name of Mare’s sister.
Because Ria been searching for several years the internet had many results regarding Mare. “It is just a wonderful miracle,” said Marleen.
The realisation left them both speechless as Mare had not known she had a sister, and Ria because her prayers were answered when she got a call out of the blue.

They met for the first time in 34 years in January. Mare’s church raised money to fly Ria and her daughter to Port Elizabeth to meet each other. Recently they spent some time here in eMalahleni.

As they sat on the couch in Marleen’s house, where Ria now lives they seemed optimistic about the future and even though thinking about the past still brings strong emotions to them, this is just the beginning for the two as they work on getting to know each other as siblings and sharing life’s ups and downs.
Ria would also like to thank Heno van Deventer who lives in Kriel for helping as well.

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