Smile

COVID-19 Patient Found Her Long-Lost Sister

Published

4 years ago

July 31, 2020

Doris Crippen and Bev Boro reunited after one checked in as a patient to the others’ place of work.
Doris tested positive for coronavirus and recovered in a rehabilitation center, where her long-sister happened to work.
The sisters are making up for their time spent apart, and are planning for a proper family reunion after the pandemic.

Bev Boro was separated from her older sister for more than 50 years. She was put up for adoption as a baby. From there, she was put inside the foster care system.

Doris Crippen learned that is positive for coronavirus, after hospital admission because of injuries to her arm. The patient received treatment in the hospital until she recovered, for about a month. From there, the hospital transferred her into Dunklau Gardens Rehabilitation Center and Nursing Home, where the sisters were reunited after one checked in as a patient to the others’ place of work.

For two decades, her sister worked as a medication aide for the rehabilitation center. On June 27, she looked over her patient list and came across the patient’s name.

“I saw her name on the board here and I just couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I was just like, ‘Oh my god. I think this is my sister.’”

She approached her sister, with a whiteboard on her hands. She wrote their father’s name and showed it to the patient.

“She goes, ‘That’s my daddy.’ And I pointed at myself, knowing she’s hard of hearing, going, ‘That’s mine, too,’” Bev recalled. “She looked at me like, ‘What?’ And because of the eyes… I have our dad’s eyes.”

For Doris, the encounter was an emotional one. She found her sister after searching for years without end.

“I nearly fell out of my chair, and I just burst into tears,” she said. “I never thought I’d find her. I couldn’t sleep that night, I was just so happy.”

Their reunion was blissful. The sisters swapped stories, making up for their time spent apart. Doris connected with four more of their siblings, after introductions from her sister. However, because of the coronavirus pandemic, their interactions were limited. Today, what’s left are preparations for their family reunion, which means more introductions are in order.