{"id":233,"date":"2020-09-08T13:49:49","date_gmt":"2020-09-08T13:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/?p=233"},"modified":"2020-09-09T13:16:22","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T13:16:22","slug":"becoming-bridget-houlihan-hayman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/08\/becoming-bridget-houlihan-hayman\/","title":{"rendered":"Becoming Bridget Houlihan Hayman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Geo and me on our wedding day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I liked my given name: Bridget Kathleen Houlihan. It came with heritage baked in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was 4 years old the day my babysitter, Phyllis, couldn\u2019t come watch me. I\u2019d be in my mom\u2019s 7th grade math classroom with her and the BIG kids instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yippeee! I bounced with excitement in the desk I\u2019d selected in the front row, sorting through my crayons, looking for shades of green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the week of St. Patrick\u2019s Day, and I wore a new t-shirt with a shamrock on it. My favorite holiday pin was on my jean jacket too. A leprechaun on the pin flashed green lights on and off, and it read, \u201cI have green roots!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every time Mom got her students quieted down to work, I\u2019d announce, \u201cI have GREEN ROOTS!\u201d and was rewarded with gales of laughter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not even the quelling death look I got from my mom, Patricia Mary Connors Houlihan, could put a stop to my fun. Her patented mom look was missing its sting because she was having a hard time stifling her own laugh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That day I was every bit a Houlihan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only when George Hayman Jr. got down on one knee in front of my parents and about 70 of our friends at his 50th Birthday party, did I instinctively know I\u2019d take a new name if it meant I got to share his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is my most treasured possession,\u201d he said, flipping open a small red box to reveal a timeless diamond. I didn\u2019t know he\u2019d kept it or that he\u2019d had it secretly re-sized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my mom\u2019s ring,\u201d he went on. \u201cYou are the most important person in my world and make it better. Will you marry me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My \u201cYes!\u201d was captured on a dozen iPhone cameras as our friends and family surrounded us with a cheer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

George kissed me and slipped the ring on my finger. It fit me perfectly. So does he. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve never taken off. I look at it when it sparkles every day and feel deeply grateful toward my mother-in-law, Anna Hayman, for raising the man who trusts me with his heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He brings me flowers every time he goes to the grocery store, leaves a cup of coffee for me on the bathroom vanity when I\u2019m in the shower, and surprises me with clean sheets on a Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both of George\u2019s parents passed away too soon, long before he and I got together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we were dating, we discovered early on that our parents had something wonderful in common. Both sets were married on the same day in different years. We considered that a good omen and decided to make that day our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So on September 8, 2015, I surprised my mom by wearing her wedding dress when my dad wheeled me down the aisle to meet George \u2014 42 years to the day after she wore it to take her vows.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That day I became Bridget Houlihan Hayman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional note:<\/strong> Here is a video Geo made<\/a> that we showed at our wedding reception. It includes pictures from both of our parents’ weddings.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I liked my given name: Bridget Kathleen Houlihan. It came with heritage baked in.  I was 4 years old the day my babysitter, Phyllis, couldn\u2019t come watch me. I\u2019d be in my mom\u2019s 7th grade math classroom with her and the BIG kids instead.\u00a0 Yippeee! I bounced with excitement in the desk I\u2019d selected in … Continue reading “Becoming Bridget Houlihan Hayman”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trip"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9HGHz-3L","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":253,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bridgetandgeorge.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}