A Reunion 90 Years in the Making: How a TikTok Reel Reunited Long-Lost Sisters’ Families

Waiting for a group of people she had never met before, teacher Vikneswari Rethinam, 45, was seen crossing her fingers in mild trepidation on Feb 18, the second day of the Lunar New Year.

Unlike a regular blind date, she said, she was waiting for eight people to arrive at a restaurant, along with two of her family members. “Each time a family came by, we turned our heads to see if it was them.”

This was no ordinary meetup. For Ms Vikneswari’s grandmother, 93-year-old Santhakumari Kanagasabai, a poignant moment of reunion was about to unfold. She was to see her younger sister’s children and grandchildren for the very first time.

“It all started with a TikTok reel I had made for my grandmother’s birthday celebration,” Ms Vikneswari told tabla!. “Some time later, I received a message from someone named Angel, who said that she enjoyed my reel and that my grandmother reminded her of hers.”

Describing herself as someone who hardly pays attention to messages sent to her on social media, Ms Vikneswari bemusedly recalled how she continued the conversation, eventually learning that both their grandmothers shared the same last name, Kanagasabai, which was their father’s.

“When Angel mentioned this name to me, I immediately checked with my mother. My mother then told me that my maternal grandmother (Santhakumari) had a younger sister named Thayanayagi.”

“I then informed Angel of what my mother had said – that Thayanayagi also had a daughter named Kasturibai. The truth was confirmed when Angel told me that Kasturibai was her aunt (her father’s older sister),” said Ms Vikneswari.

Mdm Santhakumari has eight children and numerous grandchildren, whereas her younger sister, Mdm Thayanayagi, is survived by two children, three grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

Mdm Thayanayagi passed away in 2020 due to stomach cancer.

The much-awaited family reunion was replete with hugs and tearful joy. For 55-year-old Kasturibai, the daughter of the late Thayanayagi, seeing her mother’s eldest sister felt surreal. “It was as though I saw my own mother breathing and talking,” she said.

“My late mother had told me that she had an older sister named Santhakumari. When I heard that the person in the photo found online was Santhakumari, I knew who she was. My mother wished to see her older sister until the very end,” said Mdm Kasturibai.

“That wish went unfulfilled. However, I now feel as though God has given my mother back to me,” she added.

Ms Angel Gunalan, who is the first granddaughter of Thayanayagi, fondly recalled childhood memories of her grandmother. “She was a bright, vivacious personality. She sang and danced, filling our lives with joy,” she highlighted.

As for the matriarch herself, Mdm Santhakumari was all smiles. “I never, ever thought that this could happen,” she said in Tamil.

It was only during the reunion that the grandmother revealed untold stories of her family.

Growing up in Singapore during the late 1930s, the sisters had an elder brother whom the Imperial Japanese forcibly conscripted to Thailand to build the infamous Death Railway.

“From what we knew via a letter sent to us, my brother Ramakrishnan had died from a snake bite,” she said.

Their mother had also passed away during the war period due to ill health.

“We were at our maternal grandmother’s house at the time. My father then decided to take me away, leaving my younger sister behind. When my grandmother questioned my father, he said that he would return to bring my sister along. But he never did,” Mdm Santhakumari said.

Mdm Santhakumari herself was given away, having been married off at the age of nine.

“Now I am the only one left out of the three children,” she said.

Reflecting on the meeting, Ms Vikneswari said that finding her lost family members has been deeply meaningful.

A message that could easily have been ignored became an opportunity for healing across generations, she noted.

“It feels like a full circle moment in my grandmother’s life, where years of loss, separation, and unanswered questions are finally met with connection, recognition, and a sense of belonging. It is something I never knew she needed, and something I never knew I would be able to witness,” she said.