One Woman's Eerie Similarities To Her Classmate Were A Sign Of Something Much Bigger

When two students walked into the introductory session for a creative writing class at the School of General Studies of Columbia University, they had no idea what they were getting into. Valverde had only enrolled for the course at the last minute and had no clue what she was about to set in motion as she cleared her throat and began to talk.

Her initial nervousness faded away. Then the 33-year-old gave her classmates a few facts about herself and her family background, with details that would leave one particular female student in disbelief.

Valverde had noticed the woman’s extreme reaction and, after the class had finished, watched as she approached. The two students then spoke further, and a line of questioning aimed at Valverde seemed to make up her interviewer’s mind.

The stranger subsequently told Valverde that she had helped solve a 30-year-old family mystery, and when the woman explained how, the news stunned both classmates. Valverde wondered if her classmate's story really could explain a mystery about her past.

She'd come so far. Columbia University’s School of General Studies intended to provide an Ivy League education to students from non-traditional backgrounds. And before she walked into class on that fateful day, Valverde’s life could certainly have been said to have followed an unconventional path.

She was born on December 8, 1979, in Tampa, Florida. But she didn't live in the Sunshine State live for long: she was adopted shortly after coming into this world. The young child was soon on the move.

And her adoptive parents, the Delgados, lived more than a thousand miles away from the Florida, in New Jersey. This was where their new little girl spent her formative years.

But now, in her mid-30s and with a family of her own, Valverde had made an important life decision. She would go back to school and indulge her passion for creative writing by studying it formally.

So with the help of the School of General Studies, Valverde had enrolled at Columbia University. And while she had only signed up for the creative writing course minutes before class started, she still arrived in time for the customary introductions that day in January 2013.

That last-second decision seemed to be the right call almost immediately. As a budding writer, Valverde was more than happy to share the story of her life so far. There was plenty to talk about.

But as the new student spoke to the group at Columbia’s Kent Hall about herself – including the fact she had been adopted – she couldn’t help noticing something. Specifically, it appeared as though something was seriously wrong with the woman sitting across from her.

The image etched itself into her mind. “It looked like she was having a panic attack,” Valverde would tell the New York Times in May 2015. So what in the world was going on?

Little did Valverde know that the student who sat at the opposite side of the table had a very similar life story to her own. Her name was Katy Olson, and she was a year younger than Valverde.

Born with a mild case of cerebral palsy, Olson had also been adopted at a young age. But, as it turned out, her family had lived in Florida for some time before moving to Iowa in the Midwest.

On top of that, Olson had previously spent time delving into her personal past to try and find out more about her biological family. And, through arduous online research, she had uncovered the identity of her birth mother.

In the process, however, the inquisitive woman had also found out that she may have had an elder sister who bore the name Delgado. This only brought more questions to the young woman.

From there, Olson did more online digging about the woman who could be her sister. And as a result, she discovered that her long-lost sibling had grown up in the New Jersey area. It got even weirder from there.

Olson also learned that her sister had gotten married and had ended up studying at Columbia University: the very same institution she herself was attending. What were the chances that she'd already crossed paths with her long lost sister?

And while Olson had no idea which subject her sibling may have been majoring in, she nevertheless felt that she had enough to go on. So, Olson set about using what she did know to try and track down the woman who might be her sister.

Although she had reached out via various emails, she had received no responses to her online missives. It appeared, then, that Olson’s quest had sadly reached a dead end.

Even if Olson’s trial-and-error emails had come to nothing, though, all that internet research had not been in vain. And the facts she'd learned were why she appeared to be in shock in the creative writing class.

Indeed, Olson told the New York Times, what Valverde said had “fit together with a lot of stuff that [she] knew” about her biological sister. She recognized that this could be her one chance to put all the clues together.

Instantly, in fact, Olson was convinced that the woman she had spent so long searching for was now sitting right in front of her. She still figured she had to be cautious, however.

“All of the pieces just came together for me,” she said later. But Olson also knew that she would have to avoid prying deeper into Valverde’s past too quickly. “I worried that she’d think I was stalking her,” she later admitted.

The younger woman sat turning the issue over in her mind as the class progressed. By the time the session ended, though, her curiosity had overcome her initial instinct to remain silent.

After all, she had waited years for this moment. “I didn’t want to let her get away,” Olson said. “I couldn’t go home and sit for a week without getting an answer to this question.”

So, Olson waited until the introductory class was over before she approached Valverde. In the end, though, the younger woman’s nerves took over, and the details about her long-lost biological older sister and follow-up questions came thick and fast.

And, as the conversation went on, it was Valverde’s turn to be stunned. She had known very little about her biological family and entertained few hopes that she may have had any siblings.

A 2015 Columbia University press release quotes her as saying, “My adoptive mother was contacted in 1980 about adopting another girl from my biological mother. But she was told [the baby] may not survive because of complications with her birth and delivery.”

Valverde further recalled, “After that, [my adoptive mother] never heard anything further, and I thought [my sister had] died.” But, thankfully, it turned out she had mercifully not met such a fate.

And, in fact, she had been sitting across from Valverde that day in creative writing class. Olson told her sincerely, “I think we’re sisters.” According to The New York Times, the only thing fiction aficionado Valverde could say in response was to ask, “Is this real life?”

The two subsequently left Kent Hall together and headed to a nearby bar. Then they spent the next few hours swapping questions and answers over several rounds of drinks. There was just so much to talk about.

“We just ordered pitchers of beer and started going back and forth with our lives and biographical details,” Olson told ABC News in 2015. “Like, do you like chicken wings? I like chicken wings. Do you have a weird pinkie toe? I have a weird pinkie toe.”

But, of course, it was their mutual passion for creative writing that the sisters have to thank for ultimately bringing them together. Since that day in class, meanwhile, the two have worked on forging a close bond.

They've teamed up for vacations as well as become fast friends on campus. And after they got to know each other, the women even introduced each other to their respective adoptive families.

And having left Columbia the year before, Olson was proud to attend her elder sister’s graduation from the school in May 2015. Plus, there was a guest of honor in attendance: the women’s biological mother, Leslie Parker.

Parker could only laud her daughters’ successes, telling ABC News, “They’re both amazing, beautiful women.” And their chance meeting in class? Well, Parker told The New York Times that she could only think of one explanation for that event when she heard about it. “I felt like the world was coming full circle,” she said. And the sisters knew they were fortunate to be reunited while they were still fairly young.

Some separated families have to wait much longer to find that closure. In fact, the tale of David McBride and Helen Ward is one that wouldn’t look out of place in a Hollywood movie, but their tragic experience was as real as it gets. It all unfolded on a British TV program titled Long Lost Family — a show that helps bring scattered clans together. And though the show has seen dozens of separated families come together for emotional reunions, you’d be hard-pressed to name a case more heartwrenching than this one. 

It all started back in 1962 when a baby boy was abandoned inside a vehicle on a bitterly cold evening. Then, in 1968, a similar story emerged about a little girl deserted in a phone booth. Incredibly, the same parents were responsible in both cases. But it would take decades for the pair to learn the disturbing truth, finally connect, and start hunting for answers.

To better understand the troubling case, let's take a closer look at what happened to David McBride. As we noted before, he was abandoned inside an automobile parked on the edge of Belfast in Northern Ireland. The youngster was tucked up in a duffle bag sporting a red tartan pattern, with only a tiny fluffy cover to keep him warm.

You see, David had been dropped off on a cold January evening in 1962. That poor baby! Thankfully, he wasn’t outside for long, as the owner of the car stumbled across the bag — and got the shock of her life! She contacted the authorities, who took him to the city hospital.

These events garnered a lot of attention at the time, with the Belfast Telegraph newspaper dedicating a section of its front page to the story. Anyway, David was eventually taken in by a family living in the city and grew up in a loving household. But his life changed forever when he decided to enroll in the army as a teenager.

David, who was 15 years old at that point, needed to provide his birth certificate as part of the application process. And that’s when he saw that there was no definitive date of birth on the document. Instead, it read, “On or about Jan 6.” Understandably, that left the teen scratching his head in confusion.

So, David brought it up with his adoptive dad, who then broke the news. He revealed that his son was a foundling — a term used to describe youngsters who are taken in by different families after their folks abandon them. When he was picked up, there was no way for a solid birthdate to be confirmed without knowing who his mom was.

Instead, circumstances dictated that hospital staff had to make a rough estimate. It was believed that David had been about two weeks old on that fateful evening: January 16, 1962. Anyway, to say that teenager was shocked by these revelations would be a huge understatement.

Looking back on that, David spoke to the Daily Mail newspaper’s website in September 2021. The Belfast native said, “It meant that for the first couple of weeks of my life someone fed me, clothed me, kept me warm, loved me, someone genuinely cared. Suddenly your view of the world changes slightly. You feel a wee bit lost, to be truthful.”

David also shared his thoughts during the Long Lost Family episode in an emotional outpouring. “I’m sad that it happened,” he notes. “I’m sad for myself that it happened in the manner that it [did]. But I’m also sad for my mother. Because it must have been heartbreaking for her.”

“I don’t understand why after 14 days [my mom] suddenly decided she couldn’t cope with me anymore,” David adds. “Why [did] this happen to me?” You can’t blame him for feeling that way, right? But despite all the pain and confusion, he decided to press ahead with a search for answers as the years went on.

David even shared his pleas in a TV campaign back in the early 2000s. Surely that’d help the foundling’s cause? Well, no: unfortunately, no new information came to light. So the mysteries of who his folks were and why he had been abandoned continued to hang over his head. 

Mind you, as we mentioned earlier, David wasn’t alone here. Someone else shared his drive for answers about their own past, having been abandoned as a baby, too. Yet in a shocking twist, that person turned out to be his sister. Her name is Helen Ward, and her story is just as fascinating.

Yes, in March 1968 baby Helen had been wrapped up just like her older brother: inside a tartan holdall. But she wasn’t dropped off in a stranger’s car. Instead, this time the youngster had been abandoned in a phone booth in Dundalk, Ireland. Later found by a truck driver, the infant thrived despite her tough start and soon she, too, was adopted.

Now, Helen’s parents were pretty honest with her regarding the adoption as she got older: it wasn’t kept secret. With that being said, though, they did hold a few details back, the important one here being that she was, in fact, a foundling. In the end, it all came to a head in a conversation, upon which she reflected to the Daily Mail.

Helen said, “When I was 17, I asked my dad for more information, and he said, ‘Let sleeping dogs lie.’ But of course, you can’t. There are so many questions. My birth mom especially was always in the back of my mind. I thought of the hardship she’d gone through giving me up and I had this huge need to know who she was.”

That drive was only strengthened after Helen welcomed her own kids into the world. And it all culminated in a hugely significant moment in 2003 when she called into an adoption agency in the Irish town of Drogheda. The parent was optimistic that her birth mom’s name was on record there, unaware of the painful truth.

Yep, Helen couldn’t find a name. “Child found exposed” was the lone phrase written on her birth certificate. Just like that, she’d uncovered her foundling status — and it hit her hard. David’s sister opened up about her mindset at that time during the Long Lost Family episode, shedding a few tears along the way.

Helen recalls, “I had gone in with such hope because it meant so much to me to find my birth mother. It broke my heart that day I left. Absolutely broke my heart.” Despite the setback, though, she didn’t intend on giving up. In fact, on the day that she turned 44, the mom contacted an Irish radio station.

Just as David had done on the small screen years before, Helen shared her story over the airwaves, hoping to make a breakthrough. Would she have better luck? Well, sort of. To the surprise of everyone, the man who discovered her in the phone booth in 1968 called up the station, which led to an unexpected reunion.

The trucker’s name was Donal Vaughan, and he went on to recall the events of that day to Helen face-to-face. As Helen later reported to newspaper the Daily MIrror, apparently, when Donal got closer to the phone booth, a woman quickly burst out of the door and hopped inside a vehicle. That had to be her mom, right? He believed she had been keeping watch until someone discovered the baby.

Donal’s theory was backed up by the fact that the baby had been left with a warm bottle of milk beside her. But unfortunately, nothing else came from the public appeal over the radio. It looked like Helen had reached a dead-end. Years later, though, everything changed.

Aware of improvements in DNA-matching technology, Helen decided to undergo a test and submit the results to an online database in 2019. Who’s to say she wouldn’t get lucky? Well, in a rather fortunate turn of events, David’s information also found its way to the same place a few months later. Yet it wasn’t him who had put it there. 

You see, Long Lost Family’s production team were responsible, after David had turned to them for help. Anyway, once their DNA matched up on the database, the foundlings finally had a relative. They weren’t alone! And given that this had happened more than once, might there have been more siblings out there?

Unsurprisingly, David could barely contain himself when he heard the news. But something else then started to eat at him. As he told the Daily Mail, “Finding I had a sister was probably one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever had. At the same time there was also sadness, knowing that she had gone through the same difficult journey as me.”

The long-separated siblings came together towards the end of 2019 near the Irish border. And it goes without saying that their first encounter proved to be a highly emotional moment. Tears flowed, and lots of them! Helen described her reaction that day on the Long Lost Family episode soon after, outlining how unusual the situation had been.

Helen beams, “It’s just unbelievable. When you sit there and look at your brother. It’s a very strange and exciting feeling. After 51 years it’s a miracle.” Amazing as that was, though, two huge questions remained unanswered at that stage. Who were their parents? And why had they abandoned them?

Well, thanks to the tireless work of the show’s production team, it all started to come together for Helen and David. The answers that they had sought for decades were finally within their grasp. But it wouldn’t be an easy listen: the unearthed story about their folks was tinged with sadness and controversy.

David and Helen’s dad hailed from Dublin, Ireland, plying his trade as a store manager. He was supporting a huge family back home with his wife: they had no fewer than 14 kids. Here’s the kicker, though. Note how we didn’t refer to his spouse as the foundlings’ mom — well, that’s because she wasn’t.

As it turned out, the dad was cheating on his wife with another woman. Incredibly, that forbidden relationship lasted for close to four decades. And out of their love for each other, David and Helen were welcomed into the world. Still, this wasn’t the most controversial aspect of their story.

Yes, we know what you’re thinking: what could possibly overshadow a decades-long affair? We’ve got one word for you — religion. Helen and David’s folks didn’t share the same beliefs. Their dad was a Protestant, while their mom was a Roman Catholic. Back in 1960s Ireland, that would’ve been a massive taboo.

You see, there was a lot of hostility and friction between the two religious groups during that period of the country’s history. So, David and Helen began to realize that this wasn’t just a simple case of parents abandoning their babies: there was more to it than that. And they couldn’t help but sympathize with their mom in particular.

Helen told the Daily Mail, “It must have been a very lonely situation she was in, and it must have taken a huge amount of thought to give us up for the man she loved. But perhaps it was the only way.” David then said, “I think we both have this sadness for [our mom].”

“It’s very hard to put yourself in the place of our parents in ’60s Ireland and the choices they had to make,” David added. As for what happened to them, their dad was 82 years old when he passed away in 1993, while their mom lived on to 90. Sadly, she died unmarried a few years before her kids’ reunion.

What a gut-punch! But weirdly, the next big twist in this remarkable tale showed signs of emerging on a trip to the mom’s final resting place. Yes, after seeing the grave, Helen cast her mind back to a chat she’d had with a reporter. This had been a short time on from her radio appearance. During their talk, he spoke of another Irish foundling.

This baby had been discovered in Drogheda in 1965, sandwiched between David and Helen’s births. Back then, the latter didn’t think anything of it. Yet since reuniting with her older brother, she couldn’t help shake the feeling that this kid might’ve been a third sibling. 

David said, “I thought Helen had lost her marbles at that point. But when I did some research there were only three reported cases that I could find anywhere in Ireland over the ’60s of children being abandoned. And Helen and I were two of them.” So did their parents have one more child?

You bet they did! Yep, the baby from Drogheda was in fact David and Helen’s brother. His name is John Dowling, and just like his sister, he was abandoned in a phone booth. And the bombshells don’t stop there. John’s daughter was the one who came forward, after she watched the Long Lost Family episode in Australia.

Donna Dowling encouraged John to undergo a DNA test, while also getting in contact with the show. Once the match was confirmed, the three siblings then came together over the summer of 2021. Plus, Long Lost Family dedicated another episode to this unexpected twist, which aired that September. 

As for the meeting itself, it couldn’t have gone better. Helen said, “It was very natural and easy. I think that’s the biggest feeling out of all this, there’s no barrier between us. We talked about everything, our past, our feelings. It’s amazing to find people who know exactly how you feel.” And they’re together at last: what a journey!