New Hampshire
‘No way in hell, wild animal, you’re not disrupting my engagement!’ – The Boston Globe
They returned one cool November evening in 2023, and the former colleagues-turned-couple were dressed for a ’70s disco — Hillary in a hot pink jumpsuit, Henry in embellished bellbottoms. They had just returned to their Merrimack, N.H., home after celebrating Hillary’s 37th birthday at the Gimme Gimme Disco — a roving ABBA-inspired dance night — when Henry began putting her pink polka-dot rainboots on her feet and shuffling her toward his car.
“We need eggs,” he remembers fibbing, when Hillary was baffled by the sudden change in plans.
But in Henry’s car’s glove compartment was an engagement ring. He had considered waiting to propose on an upcoming trip, but under the disco ball in the Hampton Ballroom, “we had so much fun and she looked so beautiful…and I brought her boots because I knew where it had to happen.” Once Hillary recognized the 10-minute trip’s destination, the pieces began to click into place.
Instead of driving to the store, Henry drove to Benedictine Park. There, they emerged through the darkness in sequins and spandex — startling some loitering teens — and began the five-minute hike up the hill. As they walked, Henry started narrating the steps he’d taken to get to this day.
Months before, he told Hillary as they walked, he’d asked her twin teenage sons, Conner and Dylan, for their blessings.
“I talk to you about this because I’m not just marrying your mom, I’m also marrying you guys,” he remembers telling them over a boys’ night dinner. The twins happily agreed, and continue to hold him accountable — “Remember, you’re also married to me so you better give me good Christmas presents this year,” one recently quipped.
Not long after, Henry spoke to her parents, who live in Merrimack, where Hillary grew up. (Henry spent his childhood in Managua, Nicaragua, and moved to Merrimack in 2016.) Her mother helped Henry design an engagement ring inspired by a cocktail ring Hillary owned and longed to wear on a daily, forever basis.
As Henry finished his story and they approached the peak, they both heard an animal-like growl.
“It was a deer,” he says.
“I think it was a cougar-ish, apex predator type,” Hillary says. “So, we could have died.”
Empowered by the moment’s adrenaline and her pink faux fur jacket, she made herself as “big as possible” (she’s about 5′3″ to his 6′), raising her arms above her head and roaring aloud in response to the creature they estimate was “maybe 40 yards” away. She remembers thinking, “No way in hell, wild animal, you’re not disrupting my engagement!”
As Henry shone his phone’s flashlight into the surrounding woods, Hillary noticed a shooting star in the sky above them. When he missed it, he took it as a sign to propose, already.
They assumed the growling creature moved on as they spent the next 15 minutes crying and hugging after Hillary had answered, “Yes.”
On the trek back to the car, Henry saw a second shooting star: “What are the odds?” he says.
Henry and Hillary met by accident. She was working as a scrum master — a type of project team coach/facilitator — for Fidelity Investments’ Merrimack campus in 2017 when she signed up for what she thought was an open learning session on deployment strategies. But when she arrived at the meeting, she realized it was meant to be a small team training.
Crossed wires had led to Henry’s meeting with his direct reports being published on a companywide events calendar.
“[It was] a little awkward, but also kind of funny,” Hillary remembers. “I’m a very social person, so I was like ‘Great, I get to network and meet all these new people.’”
Henry, though, identifies as “reserved” — “I don’t smile at people. I don’t wave unless they wave me at first,” he says (with a smile). But he “wasn’t angry that she crashed my meeting,” he says. “I was more amused.”
Hillary was married at the time; her friendship with Henry began months later after he noticed Hillary’s copy of Randall Munroe’s “What if?,” a book that answers hypothetical questions using scientific evidence. “That book definitely opened him up and warmed him to me,” she remembers. “He became part of my social circle in the office.”
Hillary, who is now a strategy consultant, left Fidelity toward the end of 2019. She and her then-husband, with whom she shares twin boys, separated in spring 2020. Co-parenting through pandemic restrictions and lockdowns elongated and complicated the process, and when Henry texted that December, asking how his former colleague and friend was doing, Hillary filled him in.
Henry was instantly sympathetic. He offered to listen, asked how she was coping, and how the boys were doing. Soon they were texting memes and music and movie suggestions, making plans to hang out as friends.
Their first kiss came months later at Mel’s Funway Park in Litchfield, N.H. Henry remembers Hillary’s hugs had begun to feel different around that time: “It felt like we were two pieces of a puzzle that are meant to go together.”
Hillary, now 38, and Henry, 35, married on July 26 at Jimmy’s Jazz & Blues Club in Dover, N.H., with 85 guests.
She walked down the aisle to a live strings arrangement of Elvis Presley’s “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” with her parents on each arm. Her sons, now 15, swapped with their grandparents at the aisle midpoint to join their mom on her path to the altar.
Henry had asked that they forgo the popular trend of a “first look” — when the photographer helps stage a private pre-ceremony moment for the couple see each other in their wedding attire for the first time. So Hillary’s ceremony entrance was the first time they saw each other on their wedding day.
“She looked so beautiful, and that’s when I stopped being nervous,” Henry remembers. “She looked so happy. She couldn’t stop smiling.”
“I felt like a kid on Christmas morning … I was grinning from ear-to-ear,” Hillary confirms. ”I had practiced all those very demure smiles — but no, I was just a grinning goofball.”
Read more from The Big Day, The Boston Globe’s new weddings column.
Rachel Kim Raczka is a writer and editor in Boston. She can be reached at rachel.raczka@globe.com.
The federal government has activated the New Hampshire National Guard’s 157th Air Refueling Wing in connection with the war with Iran.
“I’ve had a briefing myself, a classified briefing, but it’s really important on the messaging on this that we really coordinate with the Pentagon,” Gov. Kelly Ayotte told reporters during a press briefing following Wednesday’s Executive Council meeting.
Ayotte said she was unable to share additional details about the nature of the New Hampshire National Guard’s activity related to the conflict, including how many guard members have been activated or what role they are playing.
“We’re going to respect what messaging comes out of the Pentagon just to make sure that our men and women in uniform are fully protected and that we aren’t providing any information that could be used in a way that would be harmful to them,” Ayotte said.
In a statement Thursday, Ayotte said the unit had been deployed in late February to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in support of the operation.
Earlier this week, Pentagon officials confirmed that members of the Vermont National Guard were involved in attacks against Iran over the weekend, though our news partners at Vermont Public were not able to confirm additional details on the nature of the operation.
During the briefing with local reporters, Ayotte also stressed her support for servicemembers and those close to them.
“I have such respect for our men and women in uniform,” Ayotte said. “As you know, I come from a military family, and they have our full support, and we appreciate them and their families, and obviously anyone who is serving right now, and my thoughts and prayers go out to those who have lost someone that they love.”
By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – While Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte has said she opposes increasing highway toll rates across the state, the Senate voted Thursday to increase rates for out-of-state license plate holders.
It now goes to the House for consideration.
This would be a $1 increase for those who have out of state plates going through the tolls at Hooksett, Hampton and Bedford for out-of-state plates, a 75 cent hike for those taking Hampton’s Exit 2 and on the Spaulding turnpike at Rochester, and a 50 cent hike for those taking the exit off I-93 to Hooksett.
An analysis in the bill shows that this would increase toll revenue by $53.3 million in fiscal year 2027 and go up each year to generate $81.4 million a year in 2036.
Senate Bill 627 passed on a voice vote with two Republicans, Senators Regina Birdsell of Hampstead and William Gannon of Sandown opposing.
Senator Mark E. McConkey, R-Freedom, moved to take the bill off the table and offered an amendment.
He said the last time there was a systemwide increase to the turnpike toll was 19 years ago.
“I am sure we could all agree the cost of operations…has continued to escalate when revenue is not rising with it,” and he noted that with an enterprise fund, the state can only spend what it takes in.
The state has just completed a 10-year highway plan and there was a $400 million shortfall in projects that could not be paid for under the current income.
McConkey said the measure would not increase tolls for New Hampshire drivers with a state license plate.
“Why don’t we ask our neighbors,” to pay a toll increase. “We are getting the best of all worlds,” by passing the bill, he said, including “protecting our residents” and having resources for improvements to the turnpike system.
Sen. Gannon, R-Sandown, asked McConkey if there are any studies on impacts near the border on businesses.
If implemented, McConkey said the state will be the 27th lowest in per mile cost still. McConkey said the bill would also increase from seven to 14 days the amount of time for those with NH license plates to pay for a toll adding there are other states that also have different rates for out-of-state users.
The Hampton toll cost would go from $2 to $3, while Hooksett and Bedford would rise from $1 to $2 for out-of-state plates.
New Hampshire currently has the lowest rate per mile among states with tolls roads.
The governor said she does not support a toll increase.
“We are not going to put a burden on drivers for a toll increase,” Ayotte said. “Families are struggling.”
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