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Jul 3, 2009 6:15 pm US/Central
Sisters Use Facebook To Reunite After 37 Years
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
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Deb spotted Stacy pass through the security doors and they rushed to each other. They hugged and cried, and noticed how much they look alike. (File)
CBS
This holiday weekend, families will be having get-togethers. However, there was one reunion of sisters that has been 37 years in the making.
On Friday at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, Deb Balzer embraced her little sister Stacy Balzer.
The sisters haven't been together since Stacy was an infant.
Facebook, a popular social networking site, helped these sisters find each other.
What happened at MSP was so overwhelming that Deb was on the verge of fainting.
"I'm a little nervous," said Deb Balzer while she anxiously awaited her sister's arrival.
Deb knew she had a little sister because she remembered the baby before divorce separated the family and thrust its history under a cloak of secrecy.
When her father died, Deb found photos in his wallet of all three of his girls. She was raised with sister Renee, but Stacy was raised by a different mother.
"I knew that there was a little Balzer sister out there some place, but I didn't know if she knew that she had two big sisters," Deb said.
Turns out Stacy had been looking for her older sisters for years, and a few months ago, found Deb on Facebook.
"When, on Facebook, I got the alert from a friend that this young girl who says she's my sister is looking for me, I just broke out in tears," Deb said.
For the past few months, the sisters chatted by phone and wrote on Facebook, but this was the first time they experienced the powerful bonds of sisterhood in person.
Deb spotted Stacy pass through the security doors and they rushed to each other. They hugged and cried, and noticed how much they look alike.
"Do you believe you're here? Hi sister. I love that you're here, finally," Deb said to her sister Stacy.
"I always knew of you guys," Stacy Balzer said. "You know what it was like growing up in that small town and you keep to yourself, don't ask questions. That's how it is."
"I'm still shaking so I'm really very excited," said Deb. "I've got my little baby sister Stacy here. I'll get my sister Renee here and then I'll have all my sisters with me, so I'm thrilled. You were just this big, you were a baby the last time I saw you. I didn't know you. I was just a little kid myself. Now we get to catch up 37 years in a weekend. I think we can do it."
The third Balzer sister, Renee, is scheduled to arrive on Saturday.
The Balzer sisters just found out that they will be featured in a book of stories about special connections made through Facebook.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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