A Long-Lost Sibling Finds Her Sister By Reading Her Best-Selling Memoir

64.56K

Maggie Lange

09/08/13 10:30AM

Filed to: Wild

Many people identified with Cheryl Strayed after reading her fantastic memoir, Wild. The author told NPR that one woman felt particularly connected to her; this reader "was just halfway into chapter one when she said she sat bolt upright in bed and realized that we had the same father."

Though Strayed doesn't name her father in her memoir, her half-sister recognized him by the description and emailed Strayed earlier this summer. Strayed's long-lost sibling had checked out the memoir from a public library while searching for books on travel. The worn hiking-boot on the cover appealed to her.

Strayed, who also wrote Tiny Beautiful Things and the column Dear Sugar, knew she had a long-lost half-sister and had made some vague attempts to discover her sibling in the past.

"As shocked as I was to be reading that email," the writer said to NPR's Rachel Martin, "I also had this feeling that I knew that was coming. I knew that someday life would turn on itself and I would be standing there facing this woman who shares my father… the human experience is full of serendipity and surprise and situations taking a turn that you didn't expect."

The two haven't met yet, but are emailing each other. More details about this developing memoir-fodder are over at NPR.

[image via Cheryl Strayed]

The following replies are approved. To see additional replies that are pending approval, click Show Pending. Warning: These may contain graphic material.

16

AndGodSpoke Maggie Lange 09/08/13 11:06AM

Remember when Oprah's half sister found her? Her reunion show was sad yet heartwarming. Oprah said her half sister could have sold her out to the media years ago as so many have done before, but she didn't. She went directly to Oprah. Later, they confronted Oprah's mom because Oprah never officially knew about her half sis growing up. Oprah's mom was nonchalant about it. Oprah helped her sis get a new house in a fancy neighborhood and now she's in college. OMG. Tears everywhere. I'm interested to hear about this author's reunion with her half sis. Oprah better get on that.

1

LouWhoo AndGodSpoke 09/08/13 11:08AM

I just saw that last week! So amazing.

1

AndGodSpoke LouWhoo 09/08/13 11:14AM

Oprah's half sis "Where Are They Now?" episode was the best.

4

WiliJ AndGodSpoke 09/08/13 11:19AM

Oprah put Wild in her book club last year too. WEIRD.

17

Hellephant WiliJ 09/08/13 11:25AM

What if Oprah is Strayed's half-sister!!!!?

23

Angelamermaid Maggie Lange 09/08/13 02:29PM

Allow to chime in with my own story - when my father was a young and single solider, he got his teenage girlfriend pregnant. Teenage girlfriend's father drove my father away from his daughter, and when she gave birth, she gave the baby girl up for adoption.

When my father met my mother afterwords, he told her that he'd had a daughter put up for adoption, but nobody else knew. He swore my mother to secrecy. My brother and I were not told about our half-sister as we grew up.

In 1996, my half-sister went looking for her birth parents. First she found her mother, the ex-girlfriend who'd since married and had three sons. Then she wrote a letter to my father, who replied back with some information but clearly didn't want a relationship. He did mention that he'd gotten married and had a son and a daughter.

After my half-sister found out that our father had died in 2006, she searched for us. She found our mother on Facebook, introduced herself, and our mother was finally free to call me up one night and tell me that I had a long-lost half-sister ... who happens to live three hours away from me. We're now best friends. :-)

1

RhinestoneEater Angelamermaid 09/08/13 03:02PM

That's awesome!

My brother's first wife was put up for adoption when she was a baby, because her family just couldn't afford another mouth to feed. It was a closed adoption, but when she turned 18, she registered with whatever agency you do, saying she was interested in finding her birth family.

One day, she was in a department store, and she heard these women talking, and the timbre of their voices was too familiar. She rounded the corner, and there were her sisters! Easy to tell, since they're all crazy tall and slim. (The "petite" sister is 5'8".)

If you wrote that into a movie, people's eyes would be rolling right out of their heads and down the aisle, but it's true!

TexasTexasTexas Angelamermaid 09/08/13 05:56PM

I'm so happy for you both!!!

Call me Risley Angelamermaid 09/08/13 07:48PM

I just welled up a little. What a great outcome for you both!

2

OortCloud Maggie Lange 09/08/13 09:03PM

One day a high-school class in Kansas was assigned In Cold Blood. A boy in the class freaked out as he figured out one of the perps was his father.

raincoaster OortCloud 09/09/13 04:39AM

Really? Why have I never heard that before?

1

OortCloud raincoaster 09/09/13 11:04AM

Because it was on a radio interview with one of the In Cold Blood case detectives in KC. My guess is you don't live in KC and didn't happen to be listening that day. The detective also talked about Capote taking him to gay bars in KC for shits and giggles.

raincoaster OortCloud 09/09/13 06:41PM

VERY interesting. Thanks.

2

OortCloud raincoaster 09/09/13 09:08PM

Want more? One night in the late 80's I was out at a dive bar in Merriam, Kansas and my date goes "Don't look now, but that guy at the pinball machine? his dad was one of the In Cold Blood guys. He's sensitive about it."

3

HoorayBeer!! Maggie Lange 09/08/13 10:50AM

The cynical side of me wonders if the point of publicizing finding her long lost sister is just a way to sell extra books.

Maybe it's just too early on Sunday and I'm grumpy. I should have this reaction instead, "Dawwwwww"

9

noodles_nyc HoorayBeer!! 09/08/13 10:58AM

It's one thing to find your long lost sister through a DNA site like 23andMe.

It's quite another to have so much in common, that your long lost sister was drawn to your book just by its cover, and sensed you through your own words so strongly that she emailed you.

I think it's a wonderful story.... even if it does end up helping sales.

2

Hey Chief Bender HoorayBeer!! 09/08/13 11:19AM

Nope. I never heard of this book, now I have and sort of want to read it. You aren't cynical. Just realistic.

1

Lin HoorayBeer!! 09/08/13 11:57AM

It would be an odd time for that. Both these books came out months ago, and she doesn't have any new ones coming out soon. That'd be a poor marketing strategy.

amycee HoorayBeer!! 09/08/13 12:08PM

If you've ever read her advice column Dear Sugar, you might think otherwise. She doesn't strike me as the type.