MILWAUKEE — Pat Gudinas has finally met her twin sister — 71 years after they were born.

"I've never had anybody in my family," she said at the reunion Tuesday at a suburban restaurant not far from where her sister, Shirley McGuire, lives.

The twins were born to a woman who had been with a married man, and they ended up in different foster homes and eventually at St. Joseph Orphanage on Milwaukee's South Side.

Both girls were told while growing up that they were adopted and had a twin.

The efforts by Gudinas to find her sister made significant progress recently when a nun in Chicago who had archival materials from the orphanage provided her with the name of the people who adopted her twin.

She hired a genealogist to track her down with the help of public records and newspaper obituaries, and the genealogist showed up at McGuire's door recently, leading to the arrangements for their meeting Tuesday.

"It's hard — all these years I have missed with her," McGuire said after she and Gudinas, who lives near Austin, Texas, shared their first hug and kiss.