Hit a home run & marry me!

FOR HIS 40th BIRTHDAY, Hugh Plitt knew just what he wanted.

He wanted his girlfriend, Jessica Katz, to agree to become his wife.

“I figured the best gift I could get would be Jessica saying yes,” Plitt said. “I wanted to bring another Red Sox fan into the family – and to get a head start on making sure my children were Red Sox fans, too.”

What better way, Plitt continued, “to ensure that we’d have more additions to the Red Sox Nation than to ask Jessica to marry me in lights at a PawSox game,” he said, recalling that big day in the summer of 2006.

Plitt had fond memories of going to Pawsox games as a child with his parents, Miriam and Arthur Plitt, of Pawtucket.

“No matter how old you are,” he said, “you always feel like a kid when you’re at the stadium, rooting for the team and the players.”

On that summer day, however, Plitt hardly knew who was playing. He was rooting for Jessica Katz to say “yes.” His parents were in on the big event, having helped with communication with the Pawtucket Red Sox staff, but his brother, Seth, and his future sister-in-law, Robin, who came to the game, would be surprised, too.

“The PawSox people were great,” Plitt recalled. “They told me when the proposal would come up on the scoreboard and where we should sit. The only thing going through my head was that Jessica would get up to go to the restroom when it popped up. I had the ring ready to go, my family was there – all in the PawSox tradition – and when it popped up, I nudged Jessica and waited for her response.”

The wife-to-be was surprised. “I know how Hugh’s parents like to celebrate special occasions in a big way,” she said, “and I figured they might have arranged to put ‘Happy 40th B-day, Hugh’, up in lights. But, no, I wasn’t expecting to see my name on the sign – along with his proposal.”

This weekend, Hugh and Jessica Plitt will be back at McCoy Stadium – with the entire Plitt family - not only to celebrate the place that began their life as a couple, but to bring their daughter, Elianna Mia, to her very first PawSox game. Elianna, who is four months old, will be wearing her very own uniform for the festive occasion – a Boston Red Sox one-sie, complete with a baseball cap, a present from Grandpa Arthur and Grandma Miriam.

A love of baseball, fitness and cookies

It is clear that a love of baseball and the Red Sox is very special to this couple. But they also blend their lives around several other themes. Athletics and fitness is certainly one – along with a love of animals, particularly dogs, and together, they have three. But providing the anchor to their lives, beginning with how they met, is their Jewish heritage and religion.

Two busy professionals, both Hugh and Jessica turned to the Internet as a way to hopefully meet someone who shared their values. They both knew they wanted children and the years were passing, but they had not yet met that special someone.

Hugh lived in Texas and Jessica in California. An online dating service, Jewish Café, was running a special two-week promotion to join for free –and both Hugh and Jessica joined at the same time.

They saw each other’s profiles, saw that they both liked dogs and athletics, and started e-mailing each other. Months of long e-mails continued, several of which contained hasty notes from Jessica, while they would be messaging back and forth. “Hang on a minute - have to take cookies out of the oven!” she would type.

That resulted in an exchange of addresses, and a special shipment of chocolate chip cookies arriving in Texas before too long. It would take four more months for Hugh to call on the phone.

And, another nine months after that, Hugh took advantage of a California work appointment to ask Jessica to meet him for a drink.

“It was truly love at first sight,” Jessica said. The very next day, Hugh found himself meeting Jessica’s mother and father, Rudi and Jeff Katz, and their entire family and friends, as Jessica, the party-planner, was putting on a surprise birthday party for her mother. Of course, Jessica had cooked all the food - and baked chocolate chip cookies, too.

The Plitts keep a kosher home, and have settled into Jessica’s residence in California. Jessica is an attorney, on maternity leave for four months following Elianna’s birth. Educated at the University of California Irvine and the University of the Pacific, and the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, Jessica has practiced children’s law, including serving as an administrative law judge for special education hearings. For the last four years, she has worked as a civil rights attorney for the U.S. Department of Education, specializing in disability in education law.

Hugh graduated from Northeastern University in Boston with a degree in psychology; he received a master’s degree in kinesiology with a minor in health promotion at the University of North Texas in Denton. He has worked in the fitness industry for his entire career, having received a variety of industry certifications, with experiences in fitness club management, and personal training. He is a regional sales manager for Paramount Fitness, based in Los Angeles, Calif.

Jewish heritage

Jessica and Hugh were both involved with Jewish organizations while growing up. Jessica’s family’s synagogue had put together a havurah. The group has been together for 31 years, and Jessica said that “this extended family was a big part of my Jewish upbringing.” She has been active as a member of the board of the young adult division of the Jewish Federation in Sacramento and San Francisco.

When Hugh and Jessica started to plan their wedding, they each wanted certain things.

“I wanted to have a huppah quilt with all the squares made by our friends,” Jessica explained. “Hugh wanted his rabbi from Rhode Island to marry us. We both got what we had hoped for.”

Rabbi Wayne Franklin and his wife, Ann, agreed to fly out to California for the wedding.

“Growing up, Rabbi Franklin was someone who always had the right answer and advice to put you back on the right track,” Hugh said. “I can’t say enough about him as a person, as a rabbi, as a mentor, and as a friend.

Jessica adds her own story about Rabbi Franklin: “On the morning of my wedding, one of my bridesmaids went down to the hotel gym with me to exercise. I was really nervous. When we walked into the hotel gym, who’s there but Rabbi Franklin, working out.” It was calming, Jessica continued, to talk with him first thing that morning. “It set the stage for my calm mood for the entire day of the wedding. He did such a beautiful job for us – and we were married under the beautiful huppah quilt that my mom had put together from the squares sent by all our friends.”

Less than three months ago, the huppah was brought back out for Elianna’s baby naming. Elianna was named for Hugh’s mother’s father and aunt – Poppy Lou and Aunt Mimi. “Two simchas under one in the same year – no one can be luckier than us,” said Jessica.

“Elianna’s name means, ‘the lord has answered,’ and did we ever get our prayers answered,” said Jessica. “Now we are embarking on this new chapter of parenthood together – and I’m blessed to be doing it with my best friend and amazing life partner. We’ve both been truly blessed.”

Elianna has already been to three baseball games in California, but this weekend will be the new Plitt family’s first game back in Pawtucket – where this family hit its very first home run.