“We’re going to be 19 and 21-year-old Erin and Ben again,” Erin Napier says in a clip from Sunday’s episode
Jones College is a special place for Erin and Ben Napier — they fell in love there as students in 2004.
And in an exclusive sneak peek of Sunday’s episode home town, HGTV stars revisit the school for its latest renovation.
“This is where we met,” Erin says of their alma mater, once known as Jones County Junior College, which is about 13 minutes from their home in Laurel, Miss. “We had our first date in the student union. Everyone on both sides of our family went to school here.”
The project, which Erin calls a “homecoming” for the couple, involves renovating an on-campus home for two other alumni, Ginny and Jon Ryan.
“We talked to our old friends from college,” says Ben. “They’re going to be involved in this.”
“We’re getting to time travel,” adds Erin. “We’re going to be 19 and 21-year-old Erin and Ben again.”
Ben is particularly enthusiastic about “going back in time, but also contributing to the future at Jones.”
Ben and Erin Napier.
HGTV
Ginny and Jon Ryan are newlyweds who graduated from Jones in 2019 and 2017, respectively.
They were given the opportunity to move into the Old President’s Home, which is one of the original buildings on campus, built in 1947. It is now used as faculty housing, and Jon Ryan has the right to live there as the college’s chief of staff to the president.
“Ginny and Jon Ryan loved going to school at Jones, and for them, living in this house will be part of their mission of building community and connection,” explains Erin, adding, “It’s such a Jones culture.”
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Ginny says the couple’s must-haves in the space are a music room and a functional kitchen.
“I want this house to feel like home,” she says.
Erin and Ben were already reminiscing about the first time their paths crossed at Jones.
“I remember seeing Erin the first week of school,” Ben told PEOPLE. “She was walking down the hall and she had a pixie cut. I didn’t know what a pixie cut was at the time, but I knew I liked it.”
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The couple, who married in 2008 and now have two children, Helen, 6, and Mae, 2, celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary in November.
“Sometimes I think about all the people in the world and how the Earth is just this tiny speck of dust in the universe,” Erin wrote on Instagram. “And somehow we managed to meet.”
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“Thank you, Lord, for 15 years of marriage that feels like home and comfort, security, strength and LOVE,” the post continued. “We’re so lucky to have found ourselves young and old together, forming those identities. I love you @scotsman.co. 🥹❤️”
Hometown airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on HGTV.
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Source: HIS Education