An elderly couple recently tied the knot after finding friendship and eventually falling in love with one another via an internet dating site.
Following the death of her former husband of 33 years, great-grandmother of five Tricia Shaw, 85, made the decision to embrace the concept of finding connections in a digital space when she created a an online profile for herself on Plenty More Fish seven years ago.
Over the years, Tricia met a handful of men via the dating platform but nothing serious ever materialised – until she stumbled across a lovely 82-year-old pilot named Ian.
Although, the very first moments of their courtship did not go as Tricia had planned.
According to Tricia, Ian ignored her first message because he was out on a hiking holiday before eventually replying to Tricia’s message following another prompt.
“The message arrived just as I was getting on a train, and I thought, ‘well this will keep until I get back home. But later, I got a message from Tricia saying ‘I can’t believe you haven’t been in touch’. And I thought: ‘This one has got something about her,” said Ian.
After exchanging pleasantries via personal messaging on the dating platform, Tricia and Ian finally decided to meet in person and both were instantly smitten. Understandably, the success of the couples pairing has shaped their opinion on the value of online dating services.
“I highly recommend online dating because you tick so many boxes before you even meet. You can tell you’ve got a lot in common,” said Tricia.
Ian echoed his new brides sentiments.
“It certainly worked for us. So I certainly would say to people to give it a try, and I’m happy to recommend it. Tricia said it was love at first sight. She fell for me straight away, and I also liked her from the word go. The wedding meant everything to me,” said Ian.
After just 14-months of dating, Ian was diagnosed with heart disease and told that he will need to undergo a risky triple bypass surgery. This prompted the couple to make a quick dash to the altar so that they could declare their love for one another in front of family and friends.
They wed on February 10 this year in front of more than 100 joyous guests.
“It started off as being family. And then after I had my operation, we had a big doo and it just morphed into a big wedding. I have no family, but Tricia has an enormous family. All of them came and loads of friends. There were 115 eventually.”
Tricia was given away by her son Timothy and her grandson Henry.
Ian is currently enjoying life with his new wife after a succesful triple bypass surgery.
