DeeAnn Angell Shafer and Kay Rene Reed Qualls had never met, but their lives become entangled earlier this year when, 56 years after being born, they learned they had been switched at birth and raised by one another's mothers
DeeAnn Angell Shafer and Kay Rene Reed Qualls had never met, but their lives become entangled earlier this year when, 56 years after being born, they learned they had been switched at birth and raised by one another's mothers.
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Together: Kay Rene Qualls (left) and DeeAnn Shafer outside the hospital where they were switched in Heppner, USA. pic/AP |
There had always been rumors in Qualls's family that she wasn't really her parents' daughter her mother had suspected this after nurses bathed her post-birth, but hospital officials dismissed her worries.
DNA testThen, last year, a woman who knew both the women's parents called Qualls's brother and told him the truth. They were stunned and neither woman wanted to believe it, but they had a DNA test performed last week and, sure enough, neither was related to the people they considered family.
Qualls remarked, "I cried. I wanted to be a Reed my life wasn't my life." As for Shafer, she didn't believe it until meeting Qualls, whom she says looks like her sister's twin. Though still confused by the sudden switch, the two have become friends and celebrated their birthday on May 3 together. Recently, Qualls introduced Shafer to her work colleagues, calling her "my swister".
"I'm trying to move forward and look at the positive," Shafer said. "You can't look back. It just drives you crazy."
