Published: 15 June, 2009, 15:10
Edited: 20 November, 2009, 10:53
Two sisters who were separated for fourteen years have finally found each other, all thanks to a woman from the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, whose hobby is tracing and bringing together people in her spare time.
After that happy family reunion, the Vorontsov sisters – Vera and Marina – just can’t talk enough. After 14 years of life apart they have a lot to share.
“Since we were separated after our mother's death, I always tried to find my brothers and sisters. It seemed so unreal to me! But I didn't give up – as they say ‘seek and you shall find’,” Marina Vorontsova said.
That is exactly Marina's case. Living in Luxemburg, she found her sister Vera some 3,000 kilometers away in Chelyabinsk, in Russia's Urals, and their three brothers in Belarus.
“One day, they called me and told me I could talk to my sister. I thought was a joke. But around half an hour later, I heard my sister's voice! It was so exciting and unbelievable,” Vera says.
For five years already Natalya Marusina, who lives in a tiny apartment in Chelyabinsk, has been helping people find their relatives and friends.
“Cases are different. Once, a girl asked me to find her father ahead of her wedding. She said she saw him taking her down the aisle to the altar. How can I refuse requests like this? I can't just be indifferent,” Natalya says.
The Internet is Natalya's key assistant. It’s hard for her to number how many people she's brought together. Some take hours, others – months, but each brings satisfaction and happiness for all sides involved.
Very often people lose each other and fail to find them again. They may live a long distance away, or even in the same neighborhood, never crossing each other’s paths – so it takes an angel like Natalya to bring them together again.
Now the Vorontsovs are reunited, and they would all like to meet together this coming New Year, which is Russia's most important family holiday, to accomplish their family's most important mission: they want to rebury their mother's remains in her home land.