A West Lothian Tesco worker is set to marry the 'love of his life' after meeting his bride-to-be online during the pandemic and never looking back. Paul Gardner, from Bathgate, met his fiancé in slightly different circumstances to most, chatting online before travelling all the way to Mexico to meet Tania Alejandra for the first time in January.
After chatting online throughout various lockdowns, Paul took the leap of faith and travelled thousands of miles across the world to meet Tania after she spent months teaching him Spanish. Paul, 31, asked Tania to move to Scotland with him in February, and six months later, the happy couple are planning their wedding for next year.
Paul wowed Tania, 36, when he went down on one knee on The Royal Mile, one of Edinburgh's most iconic streets, as the Daily Record reports. He said: "The journey Tania and I have been on is crazy - and all because I looked on to an app to learn Spanish. During lockdown, I started to think about learning Spanish because I was bored and wanted something new to do.
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"So I joined an app called HelloTalk, where you get to chat with native speakers, last August. Tania started to message me. I knew a few phrases in Spanish, so I would talk to her and she would speak to me to improve her English too.
"Then after a few weeks we started video calling and we would end up chatting for three or four, sometimes five hours. I started to feel like I really liked her and I didn't really care how far away she was.
"After two years of Covid lockdown, I really felt like I needed to be somewhere different, so that was the point where I decided I would just go to visit her." Five months after meeting Tania on the app, Paul arrived in the Mexican city of Toluca on January 17, the furthest he's ever travelled on his own.
Paul described meeting Tania as the "most emotional" moment of his life. He added: "I told my mum why I was going to Mexico and she thought it was crazy. I flew from London and I remember shaking and having to splash water on my face because I thought I was going to have a panic attack.
"But when I met Tania there were tears of joy in my eyes. It was the most emotional moment of my life. It sounds cheesy by I knew as soon as I saw her that she was the one. So I guess it's okay that people do crazy things for love."
After exploring Tania's home country for the next four weeks, Paul plucked up the courage to ask her to move back to sunny Scotland with him, to which she didn't even hesitate to agree to. Paul continued: "Most people bring back their mum a fridge magnet back from holiday, but I brought back a Mexican girl. Tania has been at home in Bathgate with me ever since. She's been to Scotland before and she loves it here.
"She thinks the people are friendly and her favourite thing is Tunnocks Teacakes. But after learning how much she loved Edinburgh, I knew I had to propose to her there." The couple plan to head back to Mexico soon to celebrate with Tania's family and Paul can't wait to test out his new Spanish language skills.
He said: "I'm getting quite fluent now and I can watch a Mexican Netflix without the subtitles. I can't wait to go back. Mexico will always be close to my heart. It's where I met the most amazing girl."
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