where everybody knows your name

February 2025 - Ricky Cormier is 30.

Ricky's been working in the restaurant business since he was 16, first as a busboy and dishwasher, eventually working his way up to server and finally chef. Now he's finally opened his own restaurant on Main Street called The Burren.

if i had $1000000

November 2024 - Randy and Andrea London are 27.

Randy was never a ladies man in school, but when he met Andrea he swept her off her feet.

cowboy take me away

August 2024 - Caroline and Charlie Wilder are 23, Riley is 2 months.

At 23 Caroline is a lot more grown up than she had expected. But she was never a party girl or a career woman. She has friends, she got good grades in school, she loves her job as a teacher, but the most important thing has always been her family. She left her family far away in Minnesota when she left for college, but now she's made her own - her husband and her baby daughter, who she gave her maiden name, Riley.

what a good boy

May 2024 - John and Anne Smith are 23, Caroline Wilder is 22.

After almost two years of marriage, Anne loves having a grown up life. She's an associate professor of literature at Lowell College, although right now she's on maternity leave since she's eight and a half months pregnant.

Being alone in the house all day is starting to make her go stir crazy, so she invites her friend Caroline Wilder over. Caroline and her husband Charlie are also expecting their first child; she's due just a month after Anne.

"It's kind of exciting," Caroline says, "growing a person inside of you. Charlie is totally fascinated."

"Yeah," Anne replies, "but I can't wait for this kid to be born. I'm so huge."

one more robot

February 2024 - Faith and Herbert Goode are 61, Orlando Centowski is 29.

When Herbert and his wife Faith retired to Providence, he finally fulfilled his dream of building and selling robots. He opened the store a few years ago, and it's been doing a lot of business. The big sellers are the toy robots, the cleanbots, and the hydrobots; he sells several other models, including servos, but they're too expensive for most people.

papa was a rolling stone

November 2023 - Benjamin and Viola Long are 32, Clara Long is 5, Elizabeth Ng is 26.

Now that their daughter Clara is in kindergarten, Benjamin and Viola have been talking about having another child. They always thought they'd have more than one, but for some reason having a baby just doesn't feel right. Maybe it's the long hours he works at the hospital, or the fact that they just bought their first house. Even though neither of them can put their finger on the reason, they both agree that now isn't the time to have another baby.

waving goodbye

August 2023 - Sandy Fairchild is 39, Ricky Cormier is 29.

Sandy Fairchild has gone through several incarnations -  high school party girl, popular college sorority girl, studious law student, ruthless lawyer, respected judge. She shocked the people of Providence when she first started dating Ricky - he had been only 26, ten years her junior. But he was fun and exciting, and their relationship provided her life with a much needed jolt of excitement.

But even after all of those changes, she isn't prepared when she realizes she's pregnant.

my only offer

May 2023 - Robert Stanton is 22, Jenny Stanton is 21, Meg is 2 months.

When Jenny had thought about her senior year of college, she pictured parties and friends, flirting with boys and occasionally doing homework. But all of that changed the summer before her senior year when she realized she was pregnant.

Robert was the one who decided what to do. He always has a plan. She moved into his apartment in Providence, just a few blocks off campus, and they got married one fall morning at the courthouse.

angels of the silences

February 2023 - Orlando Centowski is 28, Steffi Centowski is 27, Phoebe is 2, Nate and Theo are 3 months, Elizabeth Ng is 25.

Orlando met Steffi in college. He didn't think a popular cheerleader would ever date a nerdy math major like him, but they fell in love, and he proposed to her one morning in the cafeteria.

They got married in August at the college chapel, and they moved into a nice house in Providence. She worked as a police officer, and he got a job as an oceanographer. After a few years of marriage, they had their first child, a daughter named Phoebe. It's everything he thought his adult life would be.

He's not sure why he did it, what he was thinking.  He was back on campus again that spring, around graduation, and he ran into Elizabeth Ng at the student center. They had lived in the same dorm when she was a freshman and he was a senior. They've been friends for a long time, and somehow one thing leads to another.

rock and roll all nite

November 2022 - Chris Byall and David Ottomas are 25.

Chris and David are adults now, but they aren't exactly typical adults. His parents don't approve of his dream of being a rock star, but after college he started working odd jobs in the music industry and practicing his guitar every day. He's working as a roadie now, but he's hoping to audition for a spot as a studio musician.

love and marriage

August 2022 - Anne Lowell and James Smith are 22, John and Elizabeth Lowell are 52.

Anne Lowell didn't give much thought to love. She was a serious girl, she planned her life carefully - school, college, work. But she met James Smith on her first day of college, and right away she started to fall for him.

He took her to dinner at the Hotel Ampersand at the start of their senior year.

"This is so wonderful, James," Anne said. "What's the occasion?"

"Well, I had something special in mind," he said with a smile, sliding a jewelry box across the table.