Co-workers discover they are long-lost sisters!
Updated | By East Coast Radio
This story is so astonishing it almost sounds like a Disney original movie plot!
Relationships between co-workers can develop into deep and meaningful connections.
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Spending a large amount of time together and going through similar experiences can help create these bonds between fellow employees.
We even refer to some of our co-workers as our work-wife or work-husband, or even better, our best friends.
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This is something one would consider to be quite normal and a regular occurrence.
What one would NOT expect, and would probably refer to as a one-in-a-million experience, is becoming BFFs with a co-worker, looking eerily similar (almost like doppelgangers), and then finding out you are actually biological sisters!
As mentioned before, this might seem like something out of a movie, but it is very much real life.
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This is the story of how Cassandra Madison and Julia Tinetti figured out they were sisters.
Cassandra, 32, and Julia, 31, had been working together at a bar in New Haven, Connecticut when they learned that they both have tattoos of the Dominican Republic flag.
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https://www.ecr.co.za/shows/east-coast-breakfast/watch-indonesia-not-out-harms-way-after-volcano-erupts/
This might seem insignificant, but this sparked a conversation where they shared that both were born there and had been put up for adoption.
Julia told 'Good Morning America' that from that moment on they became really close friends.
We started hanging out. We would go out for drinks, for dinner. We started dressing alike.- Julia Tinetti
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Cassandra also said that the relationship felt very natural and they hit it off right away, but people would also often comment on how similar the two women looked and that they looked like sisters.
This sparked an interest in them as well and they started questioning whether or not they could possibly be related.
The adoption paperwork, however, proved that they could not be biological sisters as it showed that they were born in different cities, had different last names, and that their mothers didn't have the same name.
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The two did feel that there was still something connecting them and they felt confident that they are sisters based on their backgrounds and uncanny resemblance.
The story of how the two finally figured it out gets a bit complicated though.
In 2018, Cassandra's adopted mother gave her a 23andMe DNA genetic testing kit that can be used to analyse one's background and help you find relatives from all over the world.
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While she did find many missing family members, it was Tinetti's childhood friend, Molly Sapadin, who helped them put the final puzzle pieces together.
Now, this is where it might get confusing.
Molly had also been adopted from the Dominican Republic and she had begun comparing her adoption paperwork to Cassandra's.
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What she discovered led her to believe they could be half-sisters, as they had the same woman listed as their mother, as well as the same last name.
Molly and Julia had been adopted on the same day and all three women then came to realise that the paperwork might have been mixed around during the process.
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A DNA test did reveal that Molly and Cassandra are third cousins and Cassandra was also able to match with a first cousin who put her in contact with her biological father.
From there it was only a hop, skip, and a jump before they figured it all out as her father revealed that she indeed had a sister that was also put up for adoption and Julia finally took the DNA test that proved what they had also believed.
On top of the DR being a very poor country, they couldn't take care of us. I was [born] 17 months later and they weren't ready.- Julia Tinetti
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Although they were close before, the two have now become even closer and are still the best of friends.
Julia and I met in 2013 working at Russian Lady in New Haven, CT. Julia notices the Dominican flag on my arm and makes a...
Posted by Cassandra Raquel Madison on Thursday, 28 January 2021
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Hopefully, this story can provide hope to many others looking to reconnect with family members they haven't seen in years, or even met yet, whether it's adopted family or not.
But don't forget, being part of a family doesn't mean you have to be blood-related.
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Your family includes your friends, your wife, your husband, and even your pet. It can be whatever you want it to be.
For more of the best Darren, Keri, and Sky moments, listen here:
Main image courtesy of Cassandra Raquel Madison/Facebook
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