COLUMBIA, Md. — Miriam Cardenas and Miriam Okonjo have stayed in regular contact since their reunion at Okonjo’s Columbia home, continuing conversations that began when Cardenas traveled 1,684 miles to meet the half-sister from whom she had been separated for 39 years.

Cardenas located Okonjo through family records and old documents before the sisters met in the front room of Okonjo’s home, where relatives displayed family photographs. Since then, the two have kept in touch by phone and messages, using the contact to compare family memories and photographs that had been kept separately during their years apart.

The continued contact has turned an unexpected meeting into an ongoing relationship for the sisters, who had been separated as children.