Between the crime and grime news pieces I write, it's so beautiful to find a love story that makes up for all the ugly news. A few weeks ago, a friend introduced me to her uncle and “aunt”. When they left a while later, she shared just a bit of their remarkable love story with me.
The couple, Ronald Riley and Carol Abrahams, have entrusted me to tell you how they found their way back to each other after five decades. Let's just say it involves someone sliding into someone's DMs and an angel on a hill! Come, let's go.
Ronald and Carol met as children and grew up together in the close-knit Sydenham community but the couple who started out as boyfriend and girlfriend in their teens are set to tie the knot in September — 52 years after they went their separate ways over a childish prank.
"She was three and I was five," Ronald chuckled as he spoke about how they found their way back together after all these years; he’s 69 and she’s 67.
"We did everything together. Our families were very close and we shared mutual friends. My sister was her best friend. We spent lots of time in each other's company and were together all the time," he said.
The couple often sat on the steps in the evenings where they would chat about this and that and laugh at whatever happened that day.
One day, a friend joked that Carol should tell Ronald that she had a crush on one of the boys in their friend group.
"I am a stickler for the truth," Ronald said, adding that he was not a fan of the prank.
"We were sitting on the steps at our backdoor," Carol chimed in.
"I told him that I liked one of the boys and he got up and walked away," she said.
That was it. The couple never spoke again.
Years went by and Ronald met his wife who also lived just a few doors away and got married in 1974. He was married for 45 years and had to two children, a son and daughter, before his wife passed away in 2019.
Funny thing, Carol helped deliver Ronald's daughter after his wife went into labour at home.
Carol went on to marry her husband and moved to Gauteng where they had four children; two girls and two boys. In 2010,Carol's husband passed on.
Despite their families being so interconnected, neither Ronald nor Carol ever spoke to each other again but each would hear about the other's life through mutual friends and family.
Years later, Ronald's sister travelled back to South Africa from Australia and asked if she could invite Carol and her family to a memorial for his mom's funeral because they were important to the Riley family.
Carol said they had never had any relationship since Ronald got up and walked away when they were teens.
Ronald said when they first saw each other again for the first time, it was crazy!
Last year, Carol had just finished reading an e-book and started ‘paging through Facebook’.
“I saw he was online and sent a message,” she said.
(YES! SHE SLID INTO HIS DMs) and he responded straight away.
“I responded straight away and asked what she was doing up at a bewitching hour," he said.
Carol said she was too shocked to even respond.
A few days later, she reached out to Ronald, asking for a relative's contact number to wish him for his birthday.
He wasn't sure if that would be the end of their communication so he asked if he could call her again the next day.
“I plucked up the courage and asked her and she said yes. I called her and we had a nice long chat. After that, I asked again if I could call and she said ok. When I called her the third day, I asked if I could video call and she made me wait,” Ronald said.
Carol said at this point, she was sitting with her sister and family and told them what Ronald said and basically wanted their input!
“Prior to that, I lost a son and his sister told him to call me and he didn't call me. Imagine that, he didn't even phone,” she said.
In his defence, Ronald said he was scared because when he was trolling her Facebook page, he saw that Carol was a pastor.
"I couldn't have a relationship with a pastor," he chuckled adding "....but when she called me about my relative's birthday and I thought I have to go for it."
The couple had their first date via WhatsApp video call. When he heard that Carol was cooking mince curry and rice for supper, he did the same and called her at supper time and they virtually shared a meal — the same meal!
After chatting and calls, Ronald made the trip to Johannesburg to see Carol, who wasn’t a pastor but spent her time sharing with woman’s ministries and helping addicts.
"I got so lost," he laughed.
He said he managed to get to a road, not too far from where Carol lived and called her.
"I was standing at the bottom of the road and could hear someone call my name. When I looked up, I saw Carol. It was like seeing an angel," Ronald said.
Eventually he made it to her home and Carol decided that she was packing up her life in Johannesburg and moving to Durban with Ronald.
Ronald decided that he wanted to marry Carol and asked her children for permission to marry their mom.
Their engagement was also another highlight with Carol being told that it was a Father's Day dinner but arriving at the venue to find pink decorations.
"I looked around and thought, there's no way this is a Father's Day supper," she recalled.
When she turned around to look at Ronald (who had been so nervous all day and fiddled with the rings in his pocket as they walked into the Chinese restaurant) he was on his knee and asked her to marry him.
The couple were hoping to tie the knot on his 70 birthday on September 7, but due to a family member not being able to make that date, they are set to marry two days later.
Ronald says Carol has brought joy and happiness to his life.
"Every day we wake up and go for a walk on the beach and it's like it's a new discovery every day. I went through a really bad patch and since she’s been around, I am like a marshmallow. There is laughter in my home and my life has changed," he added.
The couple are looking forward to their wedding, celebrating their love with family and friends.
IOL