Sisters separated Decades ago in Korea discover they're related to each other while working in the same place

Two orphaned sisters separated decades ago in Korea have been reunited -- after miraculously getting hired on the same floor of a southwest Florida hospital.

Holly Hoyle O'Brien, originally named Pok-nam Shin, was adopted by an American couple in 1978 when she was 9 years old, The Sarasota Herald Tribune reported.

A few years earlier, her biological father had wandered into the path of a speeding train and she was forced to identify his body, according to the newspaper. After that, she went to live in an orphanage in South Korea. Her stepmother had taken her younger half-sister years earlier and left, and it's unclear where the two went.

O'Brien grew up in a happy home in Alexandria Virginia with three sisters and six brothers.

Still, something was missing.

One night she woke up in tears,The Sarasota Herald Tribune reported, telling her parents, 'my daddy died, I have a sister, we need to find her.'

Her adoptive mother contacted the orphanage but they had no record of a biological sister.

'But in my heart, I knew,' O'Brien told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune. 'I knew she was out there somewhere.'

Her half-sister Meagan Hughes barely remembers her mother or the Korean orphanage where she eventually ended up, the newspaper reported. She had been named Eun-Sook Shin.

She was also adopted by an American family and grew up in Kingston, New York about 300 miles from where her sister lived in Virginia, according to The Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Earlier this year, O'Brien was hired at Bayfront Health Port Charlotte, working on the fourth floor with the medical surgical unit, the newspaper reported. Three months later, Hughes, who had been working as a physical therapy assistant, was hired.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported both women were working from 7am to 7:30pm.

'One of the patients told me there was another nurse, named Meagan, who was from Korea. She said you should talk to her, maybe you're from the same town,' O'Brien told the newspaper.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune reported the two instantly connected and soon the similarities started adding up.  DNA tests confirmed their suspicions this summer.

O'Brien told the newspaper: 'I'm like, this can't be. I was trembling, I was so excited, I was ecstatic.'

She even called the lab to double check the results were correct.

When Hughes finally heard the news, she told The Sarasota Herald-Tribune: 'I was in shock, I was numb. I have a sister. 

'But I was with a patient. Fortunately, it was near the end of my shift. If she had texted me early in the morning, I don’t know what I would’ve done.' 

O'Brien does not have children but is now an aunt to two nieces. She's already excited about the holidays.

Through tears, O'Brien told the newspaper: 'I have this very strong belief that God must be ... like, whatever I've done, I must've done something good in my life. 

Daily Mail