Two sisters separated by an ocean have finally met after a lifetime apart.
Victoria Guzzo first learned, twenty years ago, that she had a sister who was put up for adoption as a child.
After fruitless years of trying to track her down, Guzzo, 34, received an email from a stranger in Scotland last year.
“My name is Claire Heathcote” it stated. “I was born Andrea Kate Mitchell and I believe you are my birth sister.”
Guzzo, who lives in Georgetown, Ont., said she didn’t know what to make of the message.
“I didn’t know what to think -- if it was really her or not,” Guzzo told CTV Toronto. “And it was.”
It took eight months of planning for the two to finally meet at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Thursday.
Heathcote described the emotional encounter as “nerve racking”, “intense” and “fabulous.”
“I’m shaking like a leaf,” Heathcote said moments after meeting the sister she only learned of last year, when she had a kidney transplant.
Along with physical similarities, Heathcote and Guzzo share the same medical condition and birthday – which they will celebrate together for the first time on Aug. 7.
Guzzo said the meeting was somewhat bittersweet, as her parents died without witnessing it.
But she said she believes that everything happens for a reason.
“It was just our time for this to happen.”
