Love story: Sarah put on ad on Gumtree and stumbled across the love of her life
Sarah Doyle didn't exactly have a "life plan" when she moved back to Australia during the 2020 lockdown.
The Australian writer and surfing enthusiast had left behind a marriage in Los Angeles and was hoping to start afresh back in her hometown of Sydney.
Feeling lonely and keen to make some new friends, Sarah, then 40, decided to place an ad on online marketplace Gumtree to find like-minded people to go surfing with her.
Sarah Doyle wanted to find a surfing buddy, so she placed an ad on Gumtree. Supplied
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Little did she know, pressing upload on that innocent advert would be the "sliding doors" moment which changed her life forever.
"When I came back during COVID, I was going through the usual struggle of reclaiming my community and everything like that and it was becoming quite isolating," Sarah tells 9Honey.
"So one night, just as an experiment, I put an ad on Gumtree looking for a surf buddy."
Among the random replies from not-so-desirable suitors, Sarah found one message from someone named Rodney.
He had found Sarah's Gumtree advertisement and was keen to give surfing a try.
"He just said, 'Hi, I've never surfed before and I'm looking to try', so I looked him up on Facebook and he seemed normal and nice," Sarah laughs.
Sarah and Rodney, 39, organised a meet-up in South Maroubra with another surfer, Sam, to test the waters – literally.
It was like time slowed, and I knew it was real
A friendship blossomed with her new surfing buddies. Rodney was a caretaker for his elderly aunty and Sam was a student and extra for various tv shows.
After the second lockdown, during a surf session, Rodney said he was looking for another caretaker to help with his aunt.
Sarah put her hand up and offered to take some shifts. "His aunt was like an unlikely cupid," she smiles.
Sarah met Rodney after her responded to her message. Supplied
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A friendship that had blossomed through their love for surfing and easy connection started to morph into something more.
"One day I was looking at him and it was like a film, where there was a slow push-in focus on him," she recalls.
"And I had these butterflies in my stomach and I realised I was catching feelings for him."
In November 2021 Sarah, Rodney and Sam decided to go on a surfing trip to the South Coast.
This trip was a pivotal moment in their relationship, as it was where she told him about her developing feelings.
"I thought, 'This is it. I'm going to tell him how I feel'," Sarah recalls. "And I did and he felt the same way, but he said he didn't want to ruin everything between us."
But it was hard to ignore their "real chemistry", Sarah says.
When they returned to Sydney there was a fortnight of tug-of-war-of-the-heart where the two tried to figure out if this was something to start, to continue, or to stop. And then, love blossomed.
"There was this magical moment when I was waiting for him at the beach, checking out the waves, and he put his arms around me to say hello," she remembers.
"It was like time slowed, and I knew it was real. It had been a bit of a back-and-forth but in that moment, I knew."
The pair's friendship turned romantic during a trip down to the South Coast. Supplied
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While Sarah was happy to take things slow, she knew kids were always going to be in her future.
She'd already frozen her eggs and now at age 41, it was time to really start thinking about it.
"My sister had a baby in her forties, my auntie did and so did my grandmother," Sarah reveals.
Incredibly, the stars aligned in January 2022 when Sarah fell pregnant naturally with her first child.
"I was kind of in a shocked, bewildered state and it took a while to sink in," Sarah says.
"When I told Rodney, he was just thrilled. He was absolutely thrilled. It feels like fate and destiny."
"I think once he decided he was ready for a relationship, fatherhood came hand-in-hand with that."
Sarah is now pregnant with a baby girl. Supplied
Their relationship was still in its early stages, but Sarah says the pregnancy has deeply bonded them both together.
Sarah and Rodney are having a baby girl and are due in September, a year-and-a-half after they first met.
She still can't believe a simple ad on Gumtree for a surfing buddy found both the love of her life and a baby.
"Having children was important to me and this was like a beautiful coming together of everything," she smiles.
"It was a real sliding doors moment. I don't often think about what would have happened if I didn't post that ad, but I'm really glad I did."
