We were becoming adults. We were going through this college process together. We grew together as people and a couple.
Joe Beberman’s and Caitlin Rose Bradley’s love story took root in an unlikely location: the basement of Woodward Hall.
The fateful moment came during their freshman year at Bridgewater State. Bradley went to Woodward’s lounge to write an English essay. Beberman happened to be there talking with a friend.
“I was listening in on their conversation and I started chiming in,” recalled Bradley. Later, “he posted on my Facebook page that he would like to hang out.”
A decade later, Bradley and Beberman are preparing to tie the knot in a June wedding that may have never taken place if not for that impromptu encounter.
BSU means so much to these 2016 graduates that they held their engagement photo shoot on campus, revisiting their favorite spots and, of course, taking pictures in front of Woodward Hall.
“Almost half of our relationship has taken place at Bridgewater,” Bradley said, noting they both have parents and siblings who are alumni. “That’s where our story started, and we fell in love.”
They enjoyed Woodward’s close-knit atmosphere, which was fostered by several living-learning communities that brought together students with similar interests. Bradley was part of the honors community while Beberman lived in the math and science section.
Outside of the residence hall, they protected each other during the campus-wide game Humans vs. Zombies, where players tried to avoid being “caught” and forced to join the ranks of the zombies.
Their relationship grew over late-night talks, meals in Flynn Dining Commons, and smoothies from Crimson’s dining hall. Bradley went on to live in the newly opened Weygand Hall, with Beberman not far away in Crimson Hall.
“We were becoming adults,” Bradley said. “We were going through this college process together. We grew together as people and a couple.”
Not even a long-distance relationship could break their bond. After earning his computer science degree, Beberman’s career took him to North Carolina before returning to Massachusetts.
Bradley, who majored in English (writing concentration) and communications (theater concentration), returned to BSU to obtain her teacher’s license. She teaches English at Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree.
Beberman proposed to Bradley while playing one of her favorite games, Monopoly. He wrote a speech to her on a series of Chance cards that she picked up during the game.
Their first meeting could also be described as an act of chance. Bradley didn’t go to the Woodward lounge in search of love. She was just trying to write an essay about the loss of her grandfather.
But there was one sign hinting about what would unfold: Bradley had titled her essay “The Day My Relationships Changed.”
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