‘Like’ turns to love thanks to social media

THEY say diamonds are a girl’s best friend and that certainly rings true for Corrie Cross (68) when she married Toti’s Frank Diamond (63) nine months after the pair met on social media.

And they owe it all to their children, who insisted they join Facebook to beat their loneliness after both lost their lifelong partners.

Both were born in Johannesburg, but Frank lived in Sasolburg with his wife of 30 years before she died five years ago. He moved to Toti two-and-a-half years ago.

Corrie lived in Sabie with her husband of 49 years before he died two years ago in Pretoria, where they had moved to be closer to their three children, Kobus, Robert and Hannes.

“I was so lonely after I moved to Toti, my daughter Adre bought me a new phone and made my sign up on Facebook,” said Frank.

At our age you don’t have time to waste and you have to live life by the fullest

“Corrie and I belonged to the same chat group and I liked what I saw on her profile, so I plucked up the courage and sent her a friend request in August.”

The pair soon exchanged phone numbers and started sending each other WhatsApp messages. “We messaged each other from morning to night,” said Frank.

The star-crossed lovers did hit a slightly bumpy patch when Frank, an early riser, would send his first message at 6am. “I was a chef, so I had to be up early every morning,” said Corrie. “When I retired, I decided to spoil myself with a lie-in. After I put my foot down and told Frank not to message me before 8am, everything was fine.”

In October Frank invited Corrie to visit Toti and bought her a bus ticket. “My children were highly upset I had agreed to meet this stranger I had met on Facebook,” laughed Corrie. “It was scandalous.”

The pair got on so fabulously and Corrie loved Toti so much, she didn’t go back. “My children had to pack up my belongings in my flat in an old age home and send them to me.”

The love birds travelled to Pretoria to visit their children on 8 May for a Mother’s Day get-together. Unbeknown to Corrie, Frank was scheming with Kobus and the two went shopping for an engagement ring.

“At the get-together I popped the question and she said ‘yes’,” said a delighted Frank. As all their children were there, they decided to get hitched in Pretoria.

They were married on 28 May in a magical garden setting at Kobus’ house, surrounded by fairylights to emphasise their fairytale romance, with the theme ‘It’s never too late to be happy ever after’.

The couple is now blissfully happy that they have found each other after being lonely for so long.

“I love living in Toti,” said Corrie. “I enjoy the walks we take and feeding the pigeons. The only thing I still want to do is catch a fish.

You read about terrible things that happen to people when they meet on Facebook. It does not always end well, like our story.

At our age you don’t have time to waste and you have to live life by the fullest. I’m just glad I took a chance to meet Frank and he turned out to be my diamond.”

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