Sixty-five years ago, Sung-Wen Pu Chang was a 21-year-old college student who traveled from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Hudson, where she and her college sweetheart, Richard Chang, were married on Sept. 30, 1961.
On Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, her 64-year-old son, Kevin Chang, traveled back to Hudson with his mother to mark the his parents 65th marriage anniversary of that special day.
But Kevin had one surprise waiting for her.
While Sung-Wen knew she was returning to Hudson to visit the place where she and her husband were married, she did not know that her son had been in contact with Hudson Town Clerk Emilie Leclerc.
Leclerc had located the original marriage document signed by Sung-Wen and her husband 65 years earlier and arranged to have it presented to her during the anniversary visit.
For Kevin, the trip was more than a family outing. It was a way to give his mother a tangible connection to a moment that began a lifetime of memories.
Sung-Wen, now widowed, had been just 21 when she and her future husband decided to “elope” from Cambridge and get married during their college years.
Exactly 65 years later, Kevin wanted to bring her back to the town where their story began.
“I am so excited about taking my Mom to Hudson,” Kevin wrote while making arrangements for the visit.
Hudson Town Clerk Emilie Leclerc was happy to help make the anniversary surprise possible. She located the original marriage record and worked with Kevin to arrange the presentation.
The Town Clerk of Hudson back in 1961 was John Baker, who signed the “Certificate of Marriage” and the event took place at the Baker House, near Liberty Park.
Seeing the certificate helped mom remember where the couple were living at the time, giving them the Watertown, Mass. address, another stop the two would be making that day.
“I have fond memories of Hudson New Hampshire,” Kevin said during the visit.
Mom said, “I thought it was a charming town. Very quaint.”
At the time Sung-Wen was working at Harvard Biological Labs and her husband had just started at the Harvard Graduate School in Cambridge and she said they just wanted to get away from family and friends to get married.
Also during the visit to Town Hall, Kevin presented Leclerc with a fragrence mist that his wife’s company produces for hotels.
The visit also gave Sung-Wen’s family an opportunity to look back at the early days of her marriage. Kevin had reached out to his sisters in hopes of locating a 1961 photograph from the couple’s subsequent church wedding that might also become part of the family’s remembrance of the anniversary.
Hudson Town Administrator Roy Sorenson was also on hand to help welcome the family for the special occasion.
For Sung-Wen, the return to Hudson marked a rare opportunity to stand in the same community where, as a young college student, she began her married life.
And for her son, it was a chance to turn an important anniversary into a memory of its own – bringing his mother back to where it all began and placing in her hands a piece of the history she and her husband created together.
Sixty-five years after two young college students made their way to Hudson to begin their lives together, their son made the trip back with his mother – this time carrying a surprise from the town that had kept a record of their special day.