May 2026 was the most emotional period for Silvia Duminuco. After about twenty years of living in Sicily with her adoptive parents Enzo and Liliana, she managed to trace her origins in North Macedonia, where she was born in 1997 and adopted in 2003.

Last May, she came to North Macedonia twice, visited several cities across the country, talked to many people, and took a DNA test. Her search began with a few documents that Enzo and Liliana had, but eventually she learned that she had a sister in North Macedonia and where her biological parents were buried.

The story of this young woman is a testament to the power of perseverance. Silvia made a promise to herself and clung to that inner hope. She tells OBCT that she wanted to tell her mother only one thing: ‘I did it, Mom.’”

Official channels, such as institutions and lawyers in charge of adoption, crushed her attempts to learn more about her family of origin due to legal restrictions on providing information. The next step was the media in North Macedonia, where her story was published.

Violeta, a woman from a foster family in Makedonski Brod, where Silvia spent her last days before being adopted, commented a story published on social networks. However, it was difficult for her to find her biological parents and relatives.

Yet, her friends would not let her give up. With their help, Silvia decided to take a DNA test, the results of which she posted on a website for connecting with relatives. This step proved to be crucial in discovering Vancho, a first cousin of one of her biological parents.

“When Vancho finally answered me, hope was rekindled. In the following months, the search finally took on a concrete direction and led me to a woman who, according to many people, was my sister. For the first time, I felt close to an answer, but at the same time I was afraid. After years spent in uncertainty, even the possibility of finding out the truth seemed terrifying,” Silvia tells OBCT.

On May 8, Silvia set foot on North Macedonian soil for the first time after 21 years. Returning to the country where she spent the first years of her childhood between social workers and foster families was an emotional challenge for her, even when she boarded the plane to Skopje.

Silvia met her sister in Skopje and together they took the DNA test. She recalls that the woman was very cautious and distrustful. At first, she was hurt by her reaction, but over time she learned that she also needed to understand her perspective.

“I spent my whole life living with the thought that I had been abandoned. She, on the other hand, knew the people who might have been my biological parents. She loved them, lived with them and eventually said goodbye to them. It was almost impossible for her to imagine that they had another daughter and that that daughter was me,” says Duminuco.

The days that followed were a real whirlwind of emotions for Silvia. She met a woman, her mother’s sister, who welcomed her with great warmth and told her the story of her family. In the village of Dolni Manastirec, she visited Violeta, the last woman who had cared for her, as well as the house where she had lived for three years.

“North Macedonia was my place of origin, but also the one I associated with the first years of my life,” she recalls. Confronting the past and visiting the house where she lived as a child was like “touching a part of my own history” that until then she had only known through documents.

One of the most intense moments was when, together with her sister, she visited the cemetery where her biological parents are buried. For the first time, looking at their pictures, she visualized the absence she had felt for years. “When I was left alone in front of her grave, I felt the need to say the words that I had been carrying inside me for years: ‘I did it, Mom,’” Silvia says.

At the end of May, she came to North Macedonia again to get the DNA test report. It read: “The value obtained gives a very strong probability that the individuals are second-degree relatives, that is, that they come from the same parents.” They were sisters.

Silvia remembers that moment as a mixture of euphoria and deep loneliness, because at that moment she had no one to share her emotion with. “I finally knew who I was and where I came from,” she adds.

This life story does not end with the discovery of the truth, but with its acceptance. Silvia now knows where her roots are. Although she cannot get the lost time back, she is now focused on building new memories.

She expresses deep gratitude to everyone who has been with her. “My mother gave me life. Enzo and Liliana taught me how to live it,” says Silvia.

Today, this young woman finally feels that she belongs to both of her worlds – the one she was born with and the one she grew up in. Her experience remains a powerful message for all those who are in a similar search for their own identity, reminding us that some answers, although late, are worth waiting for.

Video material was also recorded about Silvia’s search for her biological parents and relatives in North Macedonia, and a documentary film is planned.