Long lost sisters reunite days before tragic death. Photo / KETV
She never gave up hope of one day reconnecting with her long-lost little sister.
Years after they were separated, the sisters got the chance to meet again, only for tragedy to strike days later.
Iowa woman Paige Hough was 16-years-old when her younger sister Megan was put up for adoption at age six.
Paige recalls the day she left, and the heartbreak she suffered seeing her sister walk out the door.
"[It was] one of the hardest days of my life.
"I helped take care of her, I changed her, I took her to school, I taught her how to write her name, helped her do her homework," she told KETV.
"She was my life. She is my everything."
But the courts ruled the sisters couldn't reconnect. Not until Megan turned 18.
However, fate decided the two should meet sooner when a cousin saw Megan at the mall and texted an image to Paige.
She dropped her things, left work and made her way to the mall.
Arriving at the mall, Paige began to tremble.
"I was so nervous. "I just said, 'Megan' and she turned around and that was always my fear that she wouldn't know who I was or wouldn't recognise me since she was little.
"She turned around and said, 'Oh my God', we were crying and she hugged me and it was the best thing that every happened."
With the blessing of Megan's new family, the sisters began to renew their relationship.
Paige was invited to Megan's 16th birthday on December 2.
But 10 days later, tragedy struck.
"I talked with her the night before," Paige said. "This is so hard."
Megan was dead.
On December 12, Megan tragically died when her school bus caught fire in Oakland.
"I've had a rough life. I lost my dad at a young age. I lost my grandmother who raised me at a young age," Paige said. " Megan was always my happy ending that I waited for."
Unfortunately it wasn't the happy ending the pair longed for.
But a tattoo that Paige got when Megan was still alive is now a symbol of their sisterly love.
"It was to help me get through struggles and to motivate me. Now it's more of a remembrance tattoo and I didn't think it would get to this point," Paige said.
Paige said she will never be able to repay the Klindt family for taking care of her sister.
