It’s only about 400 feet from Barrington Hall to the Archway on the Bryant campus, but it’s been the journey of a lifetime for Nick Fratto ’21 and Molly Healy ’21.
Fratto and Healy, who met as first-year students when they lived in adjacent dorm rooms, returned to campus on Feb. 28 to mark a very special occasion — although only one of them knew what it was at the time.
Seven years after graduating from “just friends” to “boyfriend and girlfriend,” Fratto knew he wanted to take the next step in the relationship by proposing to Healy where their romance began.
“One suite was full of girls, and one suite was full of guys, so by the second day our rooms were hanging out every single day together,” Fratto recalls. “Molly and I hit it off right away. The first time I met her, she had a big bag of sour gummy worms and was wearing a Patriots sweatshirt, so I knew we were in the right spot. We got to live in the dorms and do everything together: going to concerts and sports, activities in the dorm like painting pots, and going to Target.”
Fratto, a Marketing major, and Healy, who studied International Business, enjoyed their first kiss that year, but didn’t officially begin dating until the start of sophomore year.
“I lived in New Hampshire, and she lived in Walpole, Massachusetts, so we would text and FaceTime” when not at Bryant, said Fratto. “Finally, I invited her to come and stay at my parents' house for the weekend. She came up but I didn't make a move, which she later gave me crap for. Once we got back to Bryant, it was time to ask her out. Everybody in our friend group made fun of us — they all knew what was happening.”
The couple’s first “real” date was at Roger Williams Park Zoo’s Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular, on the same night that their beloved Boston Red Sox were playing a game in the 2018 World Series. (“I'll always remember it, because they won,” said Fratto.) Even a broken-down car later in the evening didn’t detract from the magic of the night.
Eight years later, on a sunny, snowy February afternoon, Fratto enticed Healy to Smithfield under the pretense of watching her cousin compete in a swim meet. Healy was a bit puzzled when the couple arrived at the MAC and found no swimmers, but remained unsuspecting when Fratto suggested a walk around campus.
Meanwhile, the couple’s family and friends set up a camera and sprinkled rose petals around the Archway before retreating to a hidden perch on the third floor of the Fisher Student Center for a bird’s-eye view of the ‘ask.’ If Healy noticed the flowers, she was still unaware until Fratto turned, got on one knee, and clicked open a black jewelry box, the sparkle from a diamond engagement ring briefly catching a sunbeam.
“I said to Molly, ‘You are my best friend, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?’” recalled Nick. “She said ‘yes’ and then, ‘I think I’m in shock.’”
“I said to Molly, ‘You are my best friend, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?’” recalled Nick. “She said ‘yes’ and then, ‘I think I’m in shock.’”
“I'm really happy and a little overwhelmed,” said Healy after being surrounded with congratulatory hugs from the secret onlookers, including some of the couple’s Bryant classmates. “This is where we started our relationship, so it’s exciting that we did it here. Nick is just my best friend. That's how our story started.”
Fratto, who admitted to feeling a little weight lifted off his shoulders once Healy agreed to marry him, said proposing at Bryant always seemed to be in the cards.
“It’s truly a special place,” he said. “Coming to a new place and meeting new people in that environment is kind of the reason why it all happened. And as we’re doing this now and I'm talking to the people we went to Bryant with, everybody's so excited — it's a true friendship group. We built a family at Bryant, and it feels like that had to be the place to do it.”