HIGHFILL, Ark. (KNWA) — Nearly a thousand miles and five decades separate the two. Two sisters who have spent their whole lives apart are finally together.
Dawn Johnson, 50, learned she had a sister through letters she found when she was a teenager but didn’t know how to find her.
“In my mind, I always knew she was out there, and I wanted to find her so much,” Johnson said. “Now my world is right. My whole is 100 percent.”
Lisa Stokes, 49, never even knew she had any siblings.
She recalled, “In July, I was watching long-lost families and I just literally started crying. And my husband said, ‘Are you okay? Is this something you want to do?’ And I get emotional now because this is what led me to my sister.”
An ancestry website brought the pair together after many years of searching.
“The answer came in December when my second cousin responded and she said, ‘I think you need to talk to my first cousin,’” Stokes said.
The sisters spoke for the first time over the phone and have talked every day since.
“I’m overflowing with emotions because I am so happy,” Stokes said. “This was something she knew, and when she said I was searching for you since 2007 my heart just jumped because I had no idea.”
She continued, “She looks so much like me. I saw her face, it’s different on FaceTime, but seeing her face live it’s like she is my sister. I knew that just by looking at her.”
Through the discovery, the sisters also found the names of their mother and father.
Their father is dead but they do plan to meet their mother together in the near future.