Keith DuPree and Gina Pearson don’t remember much of their childhood together, even though they were siblings.
They spent most of their years growing up apart in separate foster homes until they were adopted by different families in 2006.
The two siblings lost touch until 2011, when Gina reached out to her brother on Facebook to reconnect after having been apart for seven years.
Gina was studying social work at Rutgers-Camden in New Jersey, and Keith was a freshman at Rutgers-New Brunswick. Gina sometimes sang at the New Brunswick campus and it presented a chance for her brother to come see her perform.
“To me it was worth a shot,” Gina recalled of the invitation.
When the pair met up, “we ran to each other and gave each other a hug and didn’t let go.”
Gina transferred to the New Brunswick campus the next year, and the two have become inseparable ever since.
“I had had to live with the idea that you create your own family,” Keith said. “There is something different about having someone who is essentially a part of you, to know that no matter what, this other you will be there is absolutely amazing. It is so comforting.”