HAYDEN — “Come on in and meet my half-sister,” Kathy Marcus said, her smile about as bright as the sunshine she let into her Hayden home when she opened the front door Thursday morning. 

It has been an exciting time for Marcus, 78, who just met her half-sister, Judy Hutchinson, 76, of Brookings, Ore., for the first time in person Tuesday. 

Given up by their birth mother and adopted by different families at birth, they had been waiting their whole lives for that moment, even though neither of them knew the other existed. 

“It’s really weird, because I’m 76 and then I find out I have a half-sister,” Hutchinson said, seated at her sister's kitchen table. "I went 76 years not knowing. My mind is still blown." 

With a little help from her friend 

Hutchinson’s best friend, Melody Bloch, played the main role in connecting the half-sisters. 

“Our whole time we’ve known each other, since our 20s, she always talked about her adoption,” Bloch said. “She had wonderful adoptive parents, but she never knew anything about her family. 

"From day one, she was just missing a piece and wanted a piece of something tangible to know about her life," Bloch continued. 

Hutchinson has an adoptive brother and sister and was adopted by loving parents. 

"They're a nice family, and beautiful," Hutchinson said. 

But she couldn't help but wonder about her biological family. 

"I've been searching since I was 12," she said. "I wanted to know where I came from, or who I might look like." 

Bloch gave Hutchinson an AncestryDNA test about 10 years ago and has walked alongside her friend in her search for family, helping with research and communications. 

Finally, the search yielded a result when Marcus, 715 miles away in Idaho, saw a sale on AncestryDNA kits in mid-November and randomly decided to try it. 

"I thought, 'You know, I have no idea what part of the world I'm from. Blond hair, blue eyes, Western Europe or Scandinavia likely, but it could be someplace else,'" Marcus said. "I did it just to see where I was from." 

She found out she's English, French, Scottish, Irish and Jewish. 

"They also give you matches. I got the results a little before Christmas," Marcus said. "I read, 'half-sister' and I went, 'What? I've got a what?!" 

Bloch received an email from Marcus when the connection was made. 

"When you least expect it, you get it," Bloch said. "This one, she starts it off with her birth name. I was intrigued, started reading." 

In the second paragraph, Marcus mentioned the unique name of her birth mother, Wanette, which Bloch knew to also be the name of Hutchinson's birth mother. 

"My reply to her was, 'I'm so happy to let you know that you do in fact have a half-sister,'" Bloch said. 

She said Marcus communicated how she never wanted to hurt her adoptive parents by searching for her biological family and felt she may have been a "skeleton in the closet." 

"I told her that's exactly what Judy would have said, 'I'm probably some skeleton in the closet,'" Bloch said. "I knew they were in the same place, it was so exciting." 

"Did you cry?" Hutchinson asked Marcus. 

"Oh, hell yes," her sister replied. 

Marcus said she felt "totally shocked and giggly, like a teenager" when she learned of Hutchinson. 

"That's what we sounded like on the phone," she said. 

That first phone conversation happened on Christmas Eve. 

Desperate times, desperate measures 

Marcus had no father on her birth certificate. Hutchinson's certificate names a father, but indicates he was not married to their birth mom. 

"I think I was a one-night stand, 'Hi, I'm here,'" Hutchinson said. 

Marcus said a brother, who was born between her and Hutchinson but died at birth, also had no father on his birth certificate. 

Through their research, they believe Wanette had a hard life from the start. 

“She had a really miserable upbringing,” Marcus said. 

She appeared to be from a broken home, peppered with divorce and abandonment. 

"She had polio as a kid," Marcus said. "By the 1940 census, she was living with her mother and mother’s husband. Two months after that — she was 17 by now — she's in Houston getting married to someone who’s 30. Three years later, Judy picks up the story, finding that marriage annulment in Ventura County, Calif." 

They speculate, without confirmation, that she may have been a sex worker, Marcus said. 

“She went from Ventura County to L.A. County twice to have children and live in an unwed mother’s home and go through private adoption," she said. "That was like the Underground Railroad for unwed mothers. This was all over the country, especially around military facilities. These unwed mothers’ homes would be where you went to have a private adoption. Then she went one county north to Santa Barbara County to have Judy.” 

Their birth mother, who died about 17 years ago, eventually married again and had another child; however, the sisters have not yet made contact and are unsure if they ever will. 

Feeling whole at last 

Something the sisters had in common was the pain they experienced filling out medical forms. 

"It asks for family history," Marcus said. "Unknown, adopted at birth." 

"Mine was, 'Don't know, adopted' and scratch through the whole thing," Hutchinson said. 

Since they have found each other, they have exchanged pictures, stories and more. They discovered they both have had hip surgery. They both love geography, meteorology and animals, especially miniature equines. 

Marcus pointed out their similar features. 

“From the nose to the chin, our facial structures are pretty much identical,” she said. “Not the eyes, but the bridge of the nose to the chin.” 

When the sisters found each other, Bloch encouraged Hutchinson to make the most of their newfound sisterhood. 

"I told her right then, 'You don't have time to waste, you need to know her,'" Bloch said. "'Start talking right away, and as soon as you decide when you want to meet, we'll make it happen and I'll help you get there.'" 

Bloch has two older sisters with whom she has always been close. 

"We have sister days," she said. "You can talk to sisters about everything ... I wanted that for Judy." 

She said she loves the closure and the possibilities for Marcus and Hutchinson. 

"It just brings joy," she said. 

Understanding the hardships their birth mother faced, the sisters are grateful they were given up for adoption to loving families. 

"She loved us a lot and did the right thing for all of us," Marcus said. 

They are also grateful to have found each other, to be able to put together some missing pieces and make up for so much lost time. 

"We hit the DNA lottery," Marcus said. 

    Hayden resident Kathy Marcus, left, visits with half-sister Judy Hutchinson as they share stories Thursday morning at Marcus' home. The half-sisters were adopted to different families at birth and found out about each other last year thanks to ancestry.com AncestryDNA kits and Hutchinson's best friend, who helped facilitate their first in-person meeting, which took place Tuesday.
  

    Half-sisters Judy Hutchinson of Brookings, Ore., left, and Kathy Marcus of Hayden are seen Thursday morning in Marcus' home, just two days after their first face-to-face meeting.