Carlina White, the baby who was abducted from a Harlem hospital in 1987 at three weeks of age, was reunited with her biological family this week.

White's Aunts, Lisa White-Heatley and Regina Taylor, appeared on the Today Show this morning to tell the world about the experience of meeting their niece again after so much time had passed.

"It was a beautiful experience just to see your niece after so many years," White-Heatley told Today's Ann Curry. "She looked just like herself."

Carlina seems to have been eager to reconnect with her extended family. White-Heatley said that the first words her niece said to her were, "'Hi Ti-Ti, Hi Auntie!' Like she knew me already...and I just hugged her and kissed her."

Taylor, who is Carlina's father's sister, spoke to her niece several days before the news broke.

"When I saw her yesterday, I was speechless, I really didn't know what to say to her. You can't make up time...you have to just pick up from where you left off at."

Both women acknowledged an immediate closeness with their niece upon reuniting with her.

"For somebody not seeing you for that many years and saying, 'Oh, hi, Auntie!' You know, she felt the connection," White-Heatley said.
 
"Even when I spoke to her, before [the news] even aired, her first thing she said [was], 'Auntie, don’t cry, I’m going to cry if you cry, [and] I’m going to hang up on you,'" Taylor said. "I said, 'Well you need to hang up then, 'cause I'm about to cry!'"

Both women were at a loss to account for Carlina's remarkable ability to cope with this traumatic experience.

"I guess she's being strong," White-Heatley said.

Image: Today
Published: January 21, 2011