Contents
Chapter 1: The promise that haunted me for decades
Chapter 2: A secret past
Chapter 3: An encounter in the sweets department
Chapter 4: Returning home
MY SISTER AND I WERE SEPARATED IN THE CHILDREN’S HOME — AND THIRTY-TWO YEARS LATER, I SAW THE BRACELET I ONCE MADE FOR HER ON THE WRIST OF A LITTLE GIRL.
Chapter 1: The promise that haunted me for decades
My name is Elena. When I was eight years old, I promised my younger sister that I would find her. And for the next thirty-two years, I lived with the feeling that I had failed to keep that promise.
Maya and I grew up in an orphanage. We had no parents, no photographs — just two narrow beds in an overcrowded room. We were each other’s whole world. I taught her how to braid her hair, secretly stole extra buns for her, and always held her hand. We had only one dream: to leave that place together.
But one day a couple came. The director called me into her office and announced with a beaming smile, ‘They want to adopt you! This is wonderful news.’ ‘What about Maya?’ I asked. ‘They’re not ready for two children. She’s still little, others will come for her. You’ll see each other again someday.’
I had no choice. On the day of my departure, Maya hugged me around the waist and screamed so loudly that they had to pull her away by force. ‘I’ll find you!’ I whispered through my tears. ‘I promise!’ The car drove away, and I could still hear her calling my name. That sound haunted me for thirty years.
Chapter 2: A Secret Past
My foster family was not bad, but they hated talking about my past. ‘We are your family now,’ they said, and I learned to keep quiet. But Maya never disappeared from my thoughts.
When I was eighteen, I returned to the orphanage. A new employee brought out a thin folder: ‘She was adopted shortly after you. Her name was changed. Her personal file is classified.’
I tried again a few years later, and again — ‘confidential adoption.’ Life went on as usual: school, work, marriage, divorce, moving. From the outside, I seemed like a normal woman with a stable, somewhat boring life. But inside, I was still that eight-year-old girl who didn’t keep her word.
Chapter 3: Meeting in the sweets aisle
Everything changed last year during a routine business trip. In the evening, I went to the supermarket to buy some biscuits. A little girl was standing by the shelf, choosing sweets. When she raised her hand, the sleeve of her jacket rode up.
On her wrist was a thin, worn bracelet made of red and blue threads.
I froze. When I was eight, I stole these threads from a craft box and wove two identical bracelets. One for myself and one for Maya. ‘So you won’t forget me,’ I told her at the time. She was wearing it when they took me away.
I approached the girl: ‘What a beautiful bracelet.’ ‘My mum gave it to me,’ she replied proudly. ‘She said someone special made it.’
A woman with a box of cereal approached us. I recognised her instantly. Her eyes, her gait, the way she frowned as she read the labels… The girl ran up to her: ‘Mum, can we get the chocolate one?’
Chapter 4: Returning Home
I took a step forward, afraid of losing my composure. ‘Excuse me,’ I whispered. ‘May I ask… did someone give you this bracelet when you were a child?’
She turned pale: ‘Yes…’ ‘In an orphanage?’ My voice broke. ‘I made two bracelets like this. One for myself and one for my younger sister.’
She stared at me without blinking: ‘My sister’s name was Elena.’ ‘That’s me,’ I said.
We stood in the middle of the supermarket, stunned, while life around us continued as usual. In a small café next door, we ordered coffee, which we hardly touched. Her daughter, Lila, drank hot chocolate, unaware of the miracle that was happening.
‘I thought you had forgotten me,’ Maya cried. ‘Never.’
She told me that she had kept the bracelet in a box for many years. When Lila turned eight, she put it on her wrist. ‘I didn’t want it to disappear,’ she explained. Before leaving, she looked at me and said, ‘You kept your promise.’
Thirty-two years later, I finally found my sister. Now we are carefully piecing our lives back together — with phone calls, visits and endless conversations. I searched for her for decades and never thought I would find her like this. And yet — it was exactly what I needed.
