Love at first scroll: PMB woman finds love on Facebook
Sinead and Isaiah Harry’s romance is the cyberspace equivalent of love at first sight. The couple will celebrate the anniversary of their engagement this Valentine’s Day after meeting on the national #I’mstaying Facebook page.
On a beach in Cape Town last January, Isaiah (29) got photo bombed by a girl. He decided to post the picture on the #I’mstaying Facebook group where it went viral. Hundreds of women replied complimenting his looks and many even tried to track down the girl in the picture to match make them.
Meanwhile, in Pietermaritzburg, Sinead (nee Gabagas) was one of the women who left a compliment on Isaiah’s post. However, unlike with the other women, he didn’t acknowledge her comment. Sinead (27) decided to check out his profile to suss out this “rude” guy who didn’t respond to her.
“I added him as a friend so I could view his profile,” Sinead recalled.
Isaiah, who had innocently overlooked her comment, was taken with Sinead’s forwardness when he received her friend request. “I received over 800 comments on that post and 260 inbox messages, but Sinead was the only girl who sent me a friend request,” he explained.
Naturally, before accepting, he took a squiz at her profile, and described his reaction as “love at first view”. He decided to send her a message with a “killer punchline”. His chosen cheesy pick-up line: “Your name would sound better with my surname”, miraculously did the trick. “I know, it was an awfully smooth move, but that’s how I got the girl,” Isaiah joked.
Sinead said the two chatted, video-called and even jokingly planned their wedding. “It felt like we’d known each other our whole lives,” she admitted.
Last February, Sinead decided she wanted to meet Isaiah in person, and went to visit him in Pretoria where he lived. “I travelled to Pretoria to meet a total stranger. He could have been a kidnapper or serial killer, but there was something about him that made me take the risk,” she said.
It was “love at first sight all over again” for Isaiah when he met her at the bus stop. The couple were engaged two weeks later on Valentine’s Day and Sinead agreed to move to Pretoria.
And then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, halting all their September wedding plans. However, Sinead said spending the hard lockdown together brought them closer. “We were in each others’ faces in a bachelor flat with my daughter 24/7. It was definitely a make-or-break situation, but it just cemented my decision that this is the person I want to be in a marriage with,” she said.
The couple married on April 25. It was a real lockdown wedding in their lounge with just a pastor and two friends as witnesses. “We plan to still have a big white wedding in Pietermaritzburg when the pandemic blows over,” Sinead said.
Sinead tragically lost her son in June 2019 and said Isaiah’s patience and support was one of the defining factors in realising he was “the one”. “The wound from burying my son was still fresh. Isaiah brought me close to God again. He showed me the sunshine after a really dark storm.”
Finding love in an unexpected place taught Sinead never to take it for granted. “I know people still think we’re crazy, but we’ve been married for almost a year, and it still feels like the first time we met,” she said.