Facebook reunites Bosnian sisters after 72 years apart

This past summer, Facebook helped reunite a mother and daughter who hadn't seen each other in 48 years.

Now the social-networking site is being credited with reconnecting long-lost sisters.

Tanija Delic, 88, and Hadija Talic, 82, spent the last 72 years apart. The Bosnian sisters were separated from each other in 1941 as they fled their hometown during WWII. Talic, then 11, got lost in the escape and was taken in by an orphanage.

"After the war, people were telling me all kinds of things," Talic told the Nezavisne Novine daily. "Some were saying that my family was killed, others that they moved to the US. I lost any hope that I would see any of them again."

It wasn't until decades later, when Talic's son began searching for his family's roots online, that the sisters reconnected over Facebook — and learned they were living just 130 miles away.

"I made the initial contact and then I let them speak to each other on the phone – you can imagine what that was like," Talic's son, Fikret, told the Austrian Times. "Neither could quite believe it even after speaking even though they have the same memories and I think it still didn't really sink in until they actually met. There were more than a few tears but both remembered their father and their mother and brother really clearly as well as their shared childhood experiences. They were a close family until they were torn apart by war."

Talix and Delic are now hoping to locate their brother. The APF reports that he may be living in the United States.

"After the success in finding each other - they both are confident that their brother or his family is out there somewhere and want to reach them before it's too late," Fikret said.

A large family reunion involving the sisters' children and grandchildren is being planned for later this year.