SISTERS REUNITED AFTER 53 YEARS

It was 1942, and Ernest and Marie Miner were like a lot of wartime couples struggling to make ends meet.

They lived with their two daughters, ages 3 and 6, in Endicott, N.Y. When Ernest decided to join the fighting forces in World War II, Marie decided she didn't want any part of marriage or single motherhood. So she dropped her girls off at a children's home in Binghamton, N.Y., and disappeared from their lives forever.

The younger child, Joyce Ann, was adopted quickly. She went to live with a childless couple who later adopted a son.

The older girl, Carol, stayed in the children's home until she was almost 8. In May 1944, she received a letter from her father. He was remarried to a woman from Cape Girardeau and was coming to take her home to Missouri.

Joyce Ann's adoptive parents renamed her Carolyn, but they always told her the truth about her sister and the circumstances around her adoption.

While her sister Carol grew up in Cape Girardeau, her father was silent about the whole situation. He and his new wife had children of their own. There was no need to bring up the past, he felt.

Last October the past found him.

Carol Farrar, 59, was divorced and working at Sanders True Value Hardware when her 79-year-old father came by work early one day and asked when she would be finished.

"He said he would pick me up and that he had something to tell me," Farrar said. "I was nervous all day, thinking that he might be sick. But when he came back, he just said, `She surfaced,' and showed me a notebook with a name, address and phone number."

That day was the culmination of months of hard work by Joyce Ann -- now Carolyn Goodrich. She was living in Sebastian, Fla. After her adoptive mother died, she found papers about her adoption and thought long and hard about beginning a search.

"It took me a long time to decide to do that," said Goodrich, 56. "I was afraid of what the outcome might be. But once I decided, I had no misgivings. There had always been a gap in my life, like a part of me that was missing."

The search had begun in January. Goodrich's husband, Ed, was supportive of her and went with her on a vacation to New York. They looked in the Endicott and Binghamton libraries and wrote down all the Miners in the Endicott phone book.

The trip yielded nothing. Goodrich was discouraged and thought about quitting, but her husband got out their list of names and numbers and reached Ernest Miner's first cousin. He had all the information about Goodrich's father and sister and agreed to contact them in her behalf.

Miner was stunned that his lost daughter contacted him, Farrar said, and still hasn't completely come to terms with the reunion. But Farrar received a letter from her sister, wrote back, received another, and then began calling her often.

On Oct. 22, they saw each other for the first time in 53 years. Goodrich, her husband, and three grown children took a trip to Cape Girardeau, driving straight through from Sebastian and arriving on a Sunday afternoon.

"She was helping a customer when we walked in, so she couldn't really do anything," Goodrich said. "When she got through with her customer, there were some tears."

"It was like looking in a mirror," Farrar said.

The two discovered a lot of similarities: They are both "chocoholics," their favorite color is blue, they both have very short hair and they hate wearing shoes. Farrar collects angels; Goodrich collects Santas.

The October visit only lasted two days, but the sisters plan to make up for lost time when Farrar arrives in Sebastian on Christmas Day and stays until Dec. 29.

For Goodrich, it will be one of the best holidays ever. While she looks forward to seeing her sister, adopted children who want to find relatives should do a lot of meditating first, she said.

"Although you really want to find out, part of you doesn't," Goodrich said. "You're scared to find out. Once you make that decision, you feel strange.

"It was emotionally frustrating, but I'm so glad I did it."