Faith and Second Chances Fuel This Timeless Love Story

It’s a happily-ever-after fairy tale ending no one could see coming, not least of all its two main characters—Bryan and Jennie Drollinger.

The couple, who met as high school students at a dance in Alaska almost four decades ago, shared the typical trials and tribulations of a high school romance.

“We hung out off and on for a couple of years,” Jennie Drollinger recalled in a recent interview with The Epoch Times. “We had a lot of drama.”

Their relationship played out like that of many teenagers of the 1980s.

“We went to rival high schools, lived an hour apart in Alaska,” Jennie Drollinger said.

“You remember the days of long-distance phone calls, and you had to wait until like eight or nine to get the reduced rate? And you could only talk for a few minutes, and then it’s like, ‘Are you going to be at the dance on Saturday?’”

Fast forward to 2021—after each had been married and divorced, raised children, and experienced a multitude of cities and jobs—the two were reunited. They were married in 2022, and then in 2025, they won the “America’s Favorite Couple” nationwide competition, which celebrates inspiring love stories.

“It’s a lot to live up to,” Jennie Drollinger said about finding each other, combining their lives, and earning that title.

“We had 30 years apart.”

“We lived separate lives and had children, careers, and blending all of that. Nine children. I had two. He had seven. That’s a thing. And it’s messy. But you know what? At the end of the day, it’s our mess together that we get to sit through. Instead of being alone and apart and unhappy like we were in the past, we’re together. And we get to solve problems with each other. We’re grateful every day for each other.”

Sharing their story was something the Drollingers were keen to do. As luck would have it, Tricia Goyer was in their orbit.

“She’s a health coach for our company, and she came to me for mentorship,” said Bryan Dollinger.

“She told me she was an author, and she’d written like 100 books, mostly romance, and I go, ‘Oh, you should hear our story. Oh, my gosh.’ So I started telling our story, and she goes, ‘Okay, that should be a book.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s what everybody says.'”

Today, Jennie Drollinger and Goyer are co-authors of  the just-released novel, “As Sure As The Stars.”

“Our story, it’s magical,” Jennie Drollinger said on why she thinks their tale inspired a fictional story, described as a split-time romance with ’80s nostalgia—and lured in a popular writer to boot.

“It’s unbelievable. You couldn’t make it up.”

The $20,000 “America’s Favorite Couple” competition prize money helped make the book happen, as did a screenplay currently being shopped around. The contest also raised more than $3.9 million for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and Oceana.

The pair’s tale of a missed connection that led to the couple’s split wouldn’t be likely today, what with cell phones and social media. After graduation, when life took them to different cities, an unpaid phone bill ended any chance of their original story ever coming true.

“I thought she ghosted me,” Bryan Drollinger said of what was supposed to be their meet-up in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“My parents had moved from Alaska to Oregon. And so when I went back to Oregon after two years down in California, Jennie was in Utah, and I had written some songs. I was a songwriter. And so I wanted to shop them out and do that down in Salt Lake. And so I was supposed to meet her for lunch after I had done this recording. I really wanted to see her. We’ve been writing letters the whole time.”

What neither knew was that Jennie’s phone, whose bill went unpaid by her roommate, had been disconnected, leaving the two of them without a chance to find each other. And so their lives moved on without each other.

But after 32 years apart, Bryan and Jennie found their way back to each other.

“Never give up hope,” Jennie Drollinger said about their story—and the novel’s message. 

“Keep praying. That’s what I did. You just have to go through these trials and obstacles to get to the other side. Learn and grow. Get up out of bed every day. Go do what you need to do. Go to work. And then God will fix all the little things, all the details. You just have to keep that door open and be enlightened to knowledge and feelings and listen to your instincts because he’ll guide you.”

The cherry on top for the couple is their family’s embrace and support, with all nine children attending their wedding.

“They all get along really well,” said Jennie Drollinger.

“They have their own text threads. And when we, in that first October, had a trip planned to Boston, and the kids were like, ‘Well, we all want to go to Disney World for Halloween.’ So all of our kids, all nine of them, and [Bryan’s] grandkids all went to Disney World.”

There may not be rollercoasters or character breakfasts, but the Drollingers have their own special trip coming up. They will travel to celebrate the novel’s release with a book signing event on Saturday, Feb. 28, at the Blue House Bakery & Cafe in Bryant, Arkansas, featuring cookies, books, and plenty of time to chat and snap a few photos. 

“Trish is like my Gen X BFF now,” Jennie Drollinger said enthusiastically about sharing the upcoming book signing with her popular co-author, who lives in Little Rock. 

“I’ve never been to one before, so I have my Sharpie. And I’ll just hang on her coattails.”