Sisters of the heart

In a tiny town in Sicily in 1998, two babies were accidentally swapped at birth and no one discovered the mistake until the girls met in kindergarten. It could have been tragic, but their parents devised a warm-hearted solution.

- PAOLA TOTARO

New Year's Eve 1998 in the port town of Mazara del Vallo in southwestern Sicily was an unusually busy one. The local hospital, Abele Ajello, normally

only sees a dozen or so births each week, but that night all hands were book's author and screenwriter, Mauro Caporiccio, tells The Weekly via Zoom only sees a dozen or so births each week, but that night all hands were on deck as a mini baby boom ensured the on-call doctor and rostered nurses were run off their feet.

Not long after the town clocks chimed midnight, two women who had met fleetingly during prenatal classes a few weeks before went into labour and were shown adjoining rooms in the labour ward. Several hours later, Marinella Alagna, already the mother of two daughters, would end up in the same delivery room as Gisella Foderà, encouraging the first-time mum through the worst of the contractions. Their baby girls saw the light of day within 15 minutes of each other. As was customary then, the squalling bundles were promptly taken back to the hospital nursery to be bathed and clothed before being returned to their overjoyed parents. But when they were handed back, Marinella and Gisella separately pointed out that the babies were dressed in the wrong colour jumpsuits. The harried nurse shut down their questions, insisting it was a simple clothing swap and no more need be said.

What unfolded in that moment would change the two women and their extended families forever, unearthing a real-life story so extraordinary that it has now been turned into both a book and a telefilm, watched by millions in Italy and winning public broadcaster Rai 1 its highest primetime ratings in decades.

Truth, in the case of these families, was stranger - and at times more nightmarish-than fiction.