Chantel Stefanich is looking for her long-lost sister, someone she didn’t know existed until recently.
The Edmonton woman’s aunt recently told her about a biological sibling that was given up for adoption. At the time, Stefanich’s mother was dying in hospital.
Stefanich said she didn’t feel comfortable asking about her sister given the circumstances.
“It crossed my mind every time I was sitting with her, but I thought the only relief it’s going to give is probably to me, and this is her last few days,” she told Global News on Sunday.
Since then, Stefanich has been hoping to somehow locate her sister.
“Knowing that this person is out there has given me such hope. It’s amazing to know that there’s someone out there who’s a part of me like no one else could ever be. I have to meet this person.”
Stefanich set out to find her sister through social media.
“I would love to get to know her and hopefully be a part of her life, and have her be a part of my life, and my kids’ lives, and my husband’s life.”
Stefanich posted a brief video on her Facebook page in September and it has since been shared more than 4,700 times. The video sees Stefanich hold up posters with information about her long-lost sister.
Watch below: Chantel Stefanich only recently discovered she has a biological sister and decided to post a video to Facebook and Twitter in the hopes of finding her long-lost sister.
According to information Stefanich was able to gather, her sister was born in July 1971 at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton.
She was blonde with blue eyes and named Hailey Dawn.
Their mother, who was known as Shannon Jones before she was married, had Hailey at age 17.
“She did keep the little girl for a few months I believe, and then she realized there was no way she could do this on her own, so she put her up for adoption,” Stefanich said.
Hailey’s adoptive parents were Mormon. The father was a 43-year-old farmer and the mother was 42.
The family already had four other children: two boys aged nine and 11, and two girls aged eight and five.
“I do not know if my sister has any younger siblings or knows that she was adopted,” one of Stefanich’s posters shown in the video reads.
Hailey would be 46 years old right now, five years older than her little sister.
Stefanich is asking people to share her video in the hope that someone will recognize her and connect them.
“It’s something I can’t just let go. It’s so unbelievably important to me. I’ve wanted this my entire life.”
Comments