Today’s Guardian reports an incredible story of sisters reuniting after 17 years.
In an interview in 2010 Morne Nurse, whose daughter was abducted in 1997, said; “I’ll never, ever give up hope. I can feel it in my gut – my little girl is out there, and she is going to come home”. This week at last his words came to pass.
Incredibly his little girl, Zephany, was living, with a different name, just a couple of miles away for the last 17 years with the family she believed was her biological family.
Celeste Nurse gave birth to Zephany on the 28th April 1997 in Cape Town, South Africa. She was the Nurses’ first child, and she was stolen from the hospital at just three days old. Zephany’s aunt, Shantal Berry, described the devastation of the last 17 years to CapeTalk radio: “It felt empty, and we were always wondering. She was stolen but not forgotten.”
The Nurses continued to hope and celebrated their daughter’s birthday every year. They may never have known their child if not for an incredible coincidence. The Nurses’ second daughter, Cassidy, joined the same school as her long-lost sister where other children remarked on the striking resemblance between the two girls. The two became close friends never suspecting their true connection until Morne Nurse witnessed them together and immediately contacted the police. DNA tests confirmed his suspicions and the Nurses’ ordeal has come to an end.
For another family, however, the ordeal is just beginning. Zephany has been placed in care, while the fate of the woman who raised her is decided. She is being charged with kidnapping and fraud and is awaiting trial. The sister of the accused told the Cape Argus newspaper of their family’s devastation. “(Zephany) has been a part of our lives for ever. And now she’s just gone…”
