The Magic of Mason

Paige Golden Callahan ’03 and Jay Dee Callahan ’05 began their Mary Washington journey in a relationship, just not with each other.

Friends from the start, they’d begin college life under the same roof, feelings bubbling beneath the surface. By the time they finally found themselves single at the same time, graduation was just weeks away. Jay Dee planned to stay in Virginia; Paige would head home to Connecticut.

That might have been that. But the Mason Hall magic that had brought them together wouldn’t let go.

Photo Credit: Christy Mitchell Photography

Photo Credit: Christy Mitchell Photography

When life pulled them in different directions, Mason pulled back, constantly reuniting them with their circle of friends – and each other – for parties and trips. Now, more than a decade since Paige and Jay Dee crossed the stage on Ball Circle, their 10-month-old son, Mason, is a constant reminder of the love they found at UMW.

“It was there and it was real,” Jay Dee said of his long-unspoken connection with Paige. “We just took awhile getting there.”

Away from home for the first time, Paige was jamming through iTunes in the basement of Mason when Jay Dee appeared at her door. He’d trekked downstairs from his own fourth-floor room, following the booming beat of the ’90s hip-hop hit Ice Ice Baby.

Looking back now, Paige isn’t sure what reeled her in. The cool yellow hue of Jay Dee’s dyed hair? How he confidently commandeered her computer and took stock of her music? Or his formidable – and often requested – rendition of the Vanilla Ice rap?

At UMW, Jay Dee studied business administration; Paige, a psychology major in the education program, served three years as class council president. Though they each had significant others when they met, they found a closeness together, playing Ping-Pong in Mason, shooting hoops on the court and talking about everything.

“We were really, really good friends,” Jay Dee said. “We were almost inseparable.”

When their respective relationships finally fizzled, they planned a date – mini-golf and dinner – but with Paige’s senior year winding down, their time was ticking. They joined their friends for a post-grad vacation, then went their separate ways.

“It was way more brutal than it sounds,” Jay Dee said of the trip to the Dominican Republic. “It was awful to see [Paige] every day and not be together.”

Back in Connecticut, Paige pursued a master’s degree in reading, while Jay Dee returned to Fredericksburg to work in insurance. Each week for four years, Paige phoned her old friend Jay Dee. And each week, Jay Dee answered; except when he couldn’t.

“I was terrified she was going to tell me she was engaged,” he said.

Then in 2007, on a summer reunion in North Carolina’s Outer Banks with their UMW friends, Jay Dee made his move. He poured out his heart to Paige, and it worked!

“When I called my college roommate to tell him we were engaged,” Jay Dee remembered, “he said, ‘It’s about damn time.’ ”

They married in July 2010, with many of those familiar Mary Washington faces in tow. Paige is a public school literacy coach; Jay Dee, an advertising distribution manager. Together, they own a house in Killingworth, Connecticut.

But their best news by far is their son. In April 2015, they welcomed their first child, Mason James, named for the building that started it all.

“When we found out we were having a boy, Mason was the name without hesitation,” Paige said. “I smile every single time I say it … without Mason [Hall], I would never have met the love of my life.”