51.0°,
Mostly Cloudy Searching for a long-lost sister
A California woman seeks her orphaned half-sibling on Long Island
It has been more than 12 years since Jennifer Policara began searching for her sister.
Policara lives in California; she has only once been to Long Island, where she believes her long-lost half-sister to be. She grew up with her mother and stepfather on the other side of the country. Her stepfather was, to her, dad. She had a different surname, a separate identity. She knew nothing of her connection to New York. When she was 10, she discovered the truth: her biological father was a man named Johnny Policara. He was an Island Park native and West Hempstead High School graduate who split from her mom when she was only 11 months old.
By the time Policara learned the truth, her father had already died. She knew nothing of his former life and had no connection to his family.
“Since the day I learned about Johnny, there was never a day that went by that I didn’t think about him — who he was, what he was like, if I looked like him, was athletic like him, sang like him, walked or talked like him, made the same facial expressions,” Policara said. “Most of all, I wondered about how he felt about me.”
Policara found that out when she was 18. She had searched for and found her paternal aunt still living in Island Park. “It was then that I learned how much he loved me and wanted to be a part of my life,” Policara said, “how he wished he could see me and kept my photo on his dresser.”
It was also then that Policara’s real journey began: she learned that her biological father had sired a second daughter with another woman.
“I have a sister. I feel an incredible bond, crazy emotions that can only be explained through sibling connection and yearning,” Policara recently told the Herald. “I would be willing to do anything for her. … I want to bring her into my world, love her and start living a life together as we were meant to. I know my father would have wanted that.”
And Policara wonders, “Does she look like me? Do we have similarities? The same mannerisms? When we meet, will we have the answers to questions we’ve had our entire lives?”
