Happiness at the Hearthside
Historic Lincoln museum hosts surprise wedding engagement
TLINCOLN he Hearthside House Museum on Great Road has been called The House That Love Built — it was built in 1810 by Stephen Hopkins Smith in order to win the heart of a young woman. But in its 209 years, the house may have never seen a love story quite like this one.
Colby Hedstrom, 27, of Woonsocket, and Tania Kenney, 22, of Central Falls visited on Friday under the impression that they’d won a private tour of Hearthside – given by Kathy Hartley, the president of the Hearthside House Museum – to see the home decked out for the holiday before it opens to the general public on Sunday.
$t the end of the tour, Hedstrom and Kenney en tered the parlor, where the crackling fireplace, the Christmas tree, and a ser endipitous snowfall outside helped to set the mood. Hed strom then reached into one of the stockings hung on the mantle, where a box had been carefully tucked inside. $s Kenney opened the box, the words “Say es” illuminated. 7hen, on one knee, Hedstrom asked for her hand in mar riage.
“Colby ” Kenney ex claimed.
I’m “2h in shock my gosh, right it now, feels like like I’m like dreaming, serious ly,” she later said after wiping away tears of Moy. “2h my gosh Colby ”
“I was so not expecting this, I really wasn’t,” she said.
Hedstrom, though, had the entire tour of Hearthside House 0useum planned, working in tandem with Hartley on all the fine details from the minute they entered the house to the moment he popped the question.
“ Hartley gave me this idea about winning a tour and they decorate this house gor geous, so she kind of plotted with me and sent me a couple of official letters saying I won a raffle,” he said.
7his revelation may have surprised Kenney Must as much as when Hedstrom asked her to marry him.
“I was telling everybody Colby won this raffle, he nev er wins anything ” she said with a laugh.
“I feel pretty lucky right now,” he quickly added.
This love story started at Restoration Island in North Church Providence of Rhode earlier this year. Following a church service in May, the pair who by that point did not know each other were attending a party. Hedstrom wanted a piece of strawberry shortcake for dessert but felt the line was too long and that he’d rather wait for the crowd to thin out before getting his slice.
Seeing he was one of the few people at dessert without any sweets, Kenney brought Hedstrom a piece of cake and the two began talking. Within a month, the pair was officially dating.
What drew him to incoln, and seum, to Hearthside for his proposal, House 0u was that the nearby Chase )arm was where they’d go nightly in the summer to watch the sun set. It was on their sec ond date, when he saw Chase
Farm and thought he’d “nev er seen scenery like that in 5hode Island.”
“Honestly, it feels great,” he said following the propos al. “I was so excited today. Honestly, she’s amazing in so many ways, so when I came up with the idea, I Must knew it felt right, something about it felt right, and honestly, I was so excited to Must do to the tour and Kathy’s been a great help and I wanted to surprise her and do something.”
“I always wanted to do something extra, something over the top and a little old- fashioned, get on a knee and everything,” he said. “I was looking forward to it.”
That said, as the tour neared gan to its feel conclusion, the butterflies he be in his stomach begin flapping their wings at full speed.
“I was wicked nervous,” he said with a laugh. “I was nervous starting over there in the kitchen and I was like Oh man,’ because I knew I wanted to do it in this room. I was a little bit nervous, my heart was beating a little bit.”
After sharing a kiss and again wiping away her tears of excitement, Kenney de scribed her reaction to the moment Hedstrom dropped to a knee.
“I was like 2h my gosh, is he Moking right now ’” she said. “I started crying, I was like :hat ’”