A bond of sisterhood

Three women who shared a father unknowingly until after his death were united for the first time Monday afternoon, meeting at the Pizza Ranch in Washington.

Becky Kline, one of the three half sisters, said she learned about her siblings earlier this year when a family member received results from a DNA test sent to ancestry.com, a popular genealogy website that traces users’ family history.

“It’s totally different than if I had been searching for these sisters my whole life and then finally find them,” Kline said. “But I didn’t know. It’s like someone just opened a door, and here’s your sisters. It’s new and exciting to me, that’s the way I feel.”

Washington resident Paula Entsminger and Anna Benson, who was also born in Washington but now lives now in Mississippi, were the other two sisters.

While they grew up in the same community and their mothers were friends in childhood, Entsminger and Benson said they didn’t interact much as kids and hadn’t met since finding out about their sisterhood in 2014.

“There was rumors of it growing up, but I didn’t believe it,” Benson said. “When our father passed away, I talked to his oldest son and he confirmed it.”

Still that didn’t make it any less exciting to learn about another long lost relative for the second time in their lives.

“I was afraid we’d never get to meet, but they made it possible,” Entsminger said. The group organized a meeting in Washington, communicating through Ancestry.com and Facebook. While a fourth sister in Minnesota was contacted, she was unable to attend.

Though they’re technically half sisters, the trio said they considered their bond as strong as any sibling’s.

“With the way I grew up and the family we had, we don’t pay attention to the half of the stepbrother or sister,” Entsminger said.

“When you’re young, and you grow up with a sibling, you don’t know that it’s half,” Benson added. “Especially me, I grew up my whole life thinking my brother and I had the same father, but we didn’t. When my little sister came along I knew she had a different father, but back then, when you’re young, you don’t think of that.”

The main topic of conversation was the figure on everyone’s mind.

“We’ve talked a lot about our father,” Kline said.

“There’s things that they know, and I didn’t know him at all,” said Benson. “That, and where they grew up, what they’ve done, things like that. Our children, jobs, just the normal stuff we would’ve known our whole lives had we been together.”

The three said they planned to stay in touch after their meeting, but that didn’t make the goodbyes to their newfound family any easier.

“It’s going to be emotional saying goodbye,” Entsminger said. “I totally plan on seeing these sisters again, even though we’re lots of miles apart.”