For over seven decades, two 72-year-old women have been living one another’s lives. It wasn’t until they both took a DNA test that they learned the shocking truth— they were switched at birth. Now, the two women are working to try and wrap their minds about the fact that the people they considered their family, aren’t actually related to them. The pair have since met, and are slowly but surely being introduced to their respective biological families.
Women Discover They Were Switched At Birth After Taking 23 And Me Test
Jul 16, 2019
Switched. Denise Juneski and Linda Jourdeans are the 72-year-old Minnesota women who have recently learned they were switched at birth. The women were born just over 30 minutes apart, and somehow, ended up in the arms of the wrong person.
Black sheep. According to the Daily Mail UK, the pair grew up always believing that they were the black sheep in their families. Juneski was a blonde, yet her relatives were redheads and brunettes. For Jourdeans, the opposite was true.
Test. It wasn’t until they took a 23 and Me test that their suspicions were confirmed. Juneski says when she received the results back from the test, she believed they were wrong, so she took the test again. For the second time, the results said her DNA did not match that of her relatives.
Matches. “I didn't match anybody,” Juneski told K5 news. She did however, see that her DNA matched that of several people she had never met. Turns out, those people were her biological relatives.
Switch. “It’s a crazy thing. People just automatically assume they got the right family,” said Juneski, as reported by K5 news. It was Jourdeans’ daughter Michelle who first mentioned that she believed her mother had been switched at birth after Jourdeans DNA result also didn’t match her family’s.
Mother. According to the Daily Mail UK, the DNA results told Jourdeans that her mother was a woman named Marianne Mayer. Jourdeans was shocked, as she’d lost the woman who raised her, Rochelle Nielsen, to cancer when she was just 17.
Unknown. Jourdeans has since gone to meet Mayer, who lives in a nursing home. She and Juneski have also met, and have discussed how they could have possibly been switched at birth. “We'll never know, and I'm sure the nurses are dead that probably took care of us,” said Jourdeans.
Gift. Despite the news being a complete shock to everyone involved, the two women are grateful they now know the truth. "I consider it a gift,” Juneski said. Both women have told Mayer the story of the switch, telling her “Now you have more grandchildren - red haired ones,” says Juneski.
