KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |Sisters reunited after 37 years apart

Sisters reunited after 37 years apart

By Liz Elan - bio | email

MINDEN, LA (KSLA) -  The last 37 years of Sherran Foster's life have been about this moment, the moment her sister Julia arrived at Shreveport Regional Airport. "I didn't think I would ever find her," she said.
The last time the 62 year old saw her sister, they were in their 20's.

"She hasn't changed much, just got a few winkles here and there," she laughed.

Back at Sherran's home in Minden, the memories came flooding back. It was after the Vietnam War when Sherran, Julia and a third sister Diana, all married to military men, were separated.

"We all went to different bases, you'd get to a base they would start shutting down the base so we would go to another base and we would lose contact," said Julia.

Months turned into years.

"At that time you couldn't find siblings in the military," said Julia.

"It was like they dropped off the face of the Earth," said Sherran.

Each decade would bring another dead end.

"Every place we travelled, I'd look in the phone book for their names," said Julia.

Sherran said she ran up a huge telephone bill calling the operator looking for them.

It was on the internet, a social networking site called My Life where two sisters on opposite sides of the country teamed up to find each other without knowing it, but the big break was still a ways out.

"Sherran's last name at the time was Smith," said Julia. "I put in her married name and there were a bunch of Julia's that came up," said Sherran.

Sherran says what happened next was a miracle. "I rolled my hand down the screen and I had this warmth come over me when I touched her name."

In Julia's short visit to Louisiana, years of lost time are packed into hours.

"We cry and laugh and cry and eat and eat and eat," Said Julia.

They can't change the past, only cherish the present and look forward to the future with certainty.

"I am totally whole, my life is complete now," said Sherran.