Twins ‘overwhelmed’ by new Indonesian findings

29-year-old twins Lin Backlund and Emilie Falk, adopted to separate Swedish families at birth, are lying low after reporters in Indonesia claimed to have found their birth mother and family.

• Indonesian-born twins reunite in Sweden after 30 years (25 Jan 12)

“It’s really overwhelming,” Backlund told The Local.

“But we’re being careful not to get too excited – we’re not completely certain that the information is correct, yet”.

According to a report in the Suara Merdeka newspaper in Semerang, Indonesia, a woman has come forward claiming to be the mother of the twins.

Maryati Rajiman, 65, lives in Delikrejo with her extended family and told the paper that she is the mother of 15 children.

"I gave birth to the twin girls in 1983. I gave them the names Nur Khasanah and Nur Hidayah,'' she told Suara Merdeka, explaining she felt compelled to give the twins up for adoption due to economic hardship.

The woman also told the Indonesian paper the secret she whispered to the newborn twins before they were taken to the orphanage 29 years ago:

”When you grow up, remember your mother, my daughters” she said, according to the paper.

“I don’t want anything. I just want to see my children”.

The twins, whose story captured hearts around the world, have astonished readers with the sheer peculiarity of their parallel lives, seemingly spent in unison despite never knowing that a twin sister was living in a town only 70 kilometres away.

Both were adopted by Swedish families from the same region, both became teachers, both got married on the exact same day, and both danced to the same song on their wedding day. And they only found out last year, when they finally met.

The DNA-test to check if they really were twins came back with a confirmation of a 99.98 percent match. The sisters have become close friends since.

The next step, Backlund told The Local last month, was to find out if they had any family still alive back in Indonesia. And now, it seems that this has become a very real possibility.

“I’ve talked to Emilie about the whole thing,” Backlund said, the day after The Local broke the news to her.

“We’ve looked into it, and we can’t be certain just yet – there is an incorrect address of the orphanage reported. And so many people have been contacting us – so much is happening. You never really know”.

It was discrepancies in the adoption papers which meant the twins never knew they were related.

When the Swedish adoptive parents arranged a meeting when the sisters were two years old, they decided the pair was not related, but just born on the same day, due to incongruent details in the documents.

As DNA testing was not an option at the time, the possibility was forgotten.

Now, the twins are content to take things slowly and continue the investigation in their own manner.

“We’re just going to lie low for now. If there is indeed a chance that we have living relatives in Indonesia, then we definitely want to meet them, but we want to do it in our own way,” she told The Local.

“We want to respect the family in Indonesia too, and don’t want them to be swarmed by the world-wide media."