There it was. An email, to me. It was from an old friend (a cousin's ex-wife) I had not heard from in years.

It read, "Jerri. Do you know anything about a sister in Sequim? She is hosting a family reunion and wants to meet you and invite you to come."

Talk about surprise, astonishment, excitement, sadness, confusion, intrigue, mystery, anger - all those emotions arose over two little sentences.

I immediately called my brother, because we were adopted as young children by my mother's new husband, who became our Dad. Our biological Dad was never a subject in our household. We knew he lived within 20 miles; we knew he did not want to see us.

With the love our adopted Dad provided, there was not a need to question. Especially since our Mother told us he was not a good person and we were better off not knowing. We always knew how strongly she felt about that, so we did not question it.

I was bold enough, but was put off when I tried to pry about that part of our life as I was growing up. The curiosity was always underlining our emotions, and only my brother and I knew how that felt.

Then our mother died. Seems this sister was talking with friends about my mother's obituary in the local newspaper.

Her Dad had died earlier (our biological Dad) and she had found papers about us and pictures stuffed in an old suitcase in her Dad's closet. It included a copy of a marriage license to our mother. Imagine her shock.

She knew nothing about us, as we knew nothing about her, until she read the obituary. The obituary listed our names. She recognized the names from pictures in the old suitcase full of untold information about a previous life.

Ted and Jerri. She realized we were siblings. She had three half-brothers and sisters from her Mom's previous marriage. Now she had another half-sister and brother, and some last names to boot.

Where did the friend's email come into play?

Terry, in her conversation, was referred to our friend who was previously married to our double cousin. We had the same last name. Terry didn't know how to contact her, but found her Mom's name in the telephone book in a nearby town, and called her.

After she called the friend, the friend wrote the email. She gave us the opportunity to say no, if we did not want tomeet, acting as a go-between. We didn't pause a second.

Since I was born in 1947, and my brother in 1944, this really hit us hard. A sister! Terry. (My name is Jerri, my brother's name is Ted. Did this figure into our biological Dad's naming decision when she was born?)

We weren't sure what would transpire, but we knew we had to meet this half-sister. We were worried how our adopted Dad would take it, as we were very close and did not want to hurt him. He encouraged us to meet her. He, too, did not know about her.

When we saw it would be okay with, I called her. The conversation went like this:

"Hello. May I speak to Terry please?"

"This is Terry.

"Terry, I heard you were trying to find a brother and sister."

"I am." She started to tell me the story.

I interrupted: "I am your sister, Terry." It took a minute to sink in, but she finally realized what I said.

"Jerri!"

"Hi, Terry."

The conversation was a long one, and we agreed to meet. I couldn't get together with her right away, but my brother got on his motorcycle immediately and drove three hours to spend the day with her.

He met family, looked at pictures, talked. When it was my turn, we met at a mall halfway between us. We were both nervous, and as I said, as I got to know her more, we were probably acting just the same way!

The end of this story is great. We have discovered a sister who has enriched the part of our life we never knew. She is younger, 12 years my junior. She is definitely a sister I want to know better. Ted and I also have a new brother-in-law, niece and nephew.

When I met her I was really nervous, but immediately saw how much she looked like my brother. The resemblance was amazing.

Since my other sisters didn't look like me (they are also half-sisters) I was hoping she would look like me! She didn't. Getting to know her, though, proved to me we are true sisters; her personality is so much like mine. My brother agrees.

By the way, there really was a reunion. I don't think the meeting would have ever happened while my Mother or biological Dad were alive. But it did. We went. We wept and laughed and enjoyed getting to know our new relatives.

We were able to comfort our adopted Dad to adjust to our new life, as we will always consider him our Dad. But this sister is a part of our life, too.

We are now getting to know her. We still have a lot of questions. We have not had the occasion to get together as much as we'd hoped, but slowly we are becoming family.

All because of an email.