Woman's COVID-19 Diagnosis Leads Her to Surprise Reunion with Long-Lost Sister After 50 Years

Doris Crippen recovered in a rehabilitation center, where her sister Bev Boro just happened to work as an aide

Doris Crippen and Bev Boro. Photo: Daniel Johnson/Methodist Health System

It may have taken 50 years and a pandemic, but a pair of sisters in Nebraska were finally reunited after one checked in as a patient to the others’ place of work as she recovered from coronavirus, according to local reports.

Doris Crippen and Bev Boro share the same father — but Crippen was raised by her mother and stepfather, while Boro was in the foster care system and put up for adoption as a baby, the Washington Post reported. Crippen was 20 years old when she last saw her sister, and Boro just 6 months old.

Flash forward several decades, and Crippen, 73, suffered a fateful fall at her apartment in Omaha in May, according to the Fremont Tribune.

The mother of three told the outlet she reached for a glass of water and tumbled from her bed to the floor, where she stayed overnight and for another half a day, as she was unable to reach her phone to call for help.

Eventually, her son Chad came by and helped get her to the hospital, where she learned she’d suffered a broken arm — and also tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Tribune.

(L-R) Bev Boro and Doris Crippen. Daniel Johnson/Methodist Health System

After spending more than a month in the hospital, Crippen recovered, and was sent to the Dunklau Gardens rehabilitation center and nursing home in Fremont, the Post reported.

It was there that Boro, who has worked at the center for more than 20 years as a medication aide, immediately recognized Crippen’s name as that of her long-lost sibling, ABC affiliate KETV reported.

“I saw her name on the board here and I just couldn’t believe it,” Boro, 53, said. “I was just like, ‘Oh my god. I think this is my sister.’”

To let Crippen know of the incredible discovery, Boro wrote their late father’s name, Wendall Huffman, on a white board, and mimicked rocking a baby.

(L-R) Doris Crippen and Bev Boro. Daniel Johnson/Methodist Health System

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

For Crippen, the realization that she’d finally found her sister after searching for many years was an emotional one.

“I nearly fell out of my chair, and I just burst into tears,” she told KETV, adding to the Post: “I never thought I’d find her. I couldn’t sleep that night, I was just so happy.”

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The sisters’ blissful reunion was on June 27, and since then, they’ve continued to build their bond, with Boro even introducing Crippen to four more of their siblings — with whom she'd connected through Facebook — virtually, according to the Post.

The two are reportedly planning a family reunion, which will include Boro’s three kids and five grandchildren, and Crippen’s three kids and 16 grandchildren.

“It’s wonderful,” Crippen told KETV. “And in the end, we don’t have to search anymore. The journey’s over.”