Sisters adopted separately meet more than 30 years later at Columbia writing class

NEW YORK – Two women who took a writing class at Columbia University found that their own lives were a story better than fiction.

They were sisters born to the same teenage mother in the early 1980s and adopted by different families.

The New York Times reports that Lizzie Valverde and Katy Olson discovered they were sisters during a writing class in January 2013.

Valverde grew up in New Jersey while Olson grew up mostly in Florida and Iowa.

Both moved to New York as adults and enrolled in Columbia’s School of General Studies.

Olson figured out the connection when Valverde introduced herself to the writing class and talked about being adopted.