It was Valentine’s Day in 1987 when Jeanette Yaros decided to ask her close friend, Brent Brossmann, out on a date. She baked a heart-shaped cake with his name on it, brought it to his dorm room and asked him out. Brent was, at first, a little freaked out and said no. He felt it would be too drastic a redefinition of their friendship. However, a month later, Brent came back around and decided to change his no into a yes. A year later, on Feb. 13, 1988, Brent and Jeanette Brossmann were married. 

Being best friends before they started dating helped the relationship move fairly quickly. “We were extremely comfortable with each other,” Brent said. “My best advice for anyone who will listen is [to] marry your best friend.” 

As their relationship has progressed, Brent and Jeanette both said that there is one thing that hasn’t changed. “We are stuck in one stage,” Jeanette stated. “We describe it as the honeymoon stage.” Brent quickly added, “Thirty-two years of honeymoon so far.”

At first, a concern for the couple was the fact that they did not have a romantic history. “We…[went] from not dating to married in less than a year,” Brent explained. “And I kept saying that [romantic history] will come. And 32 years later, yeah, that has come. We have plenty of history. We are the kinds of folks that complete each other’s sentences” 

Brent and Jeanette place a special importance on spending time with each other. For them, it is about the little things. “For the first 10 to 15 years of our relationship, we didn’t have very much money at all. For most of our first anniversaries, we’d buy an IBC root beer and we would share one … and we would watch a TV show together,” Jeanette said. “Or go all out and rent a video,” Brent added.

The couple’s advice for budding relationships is to take away any artificiality within the date. Of course a dinner and a movie is great, however, remember to make the person the date. Don’t forget to try and get to know the person you are on the date with. Brent and Jeanette follow that rule to this day. Since Brent and Jeanette were friends before, there was never much timidity within their dating life. “We became pretty much best friends before we even dated, so we never had any of that awkward dating stuff,” Jeanette explained. 

As for long-term relationships, Brent and Jeanette say that they strive to make each other’s lives better and never lose sight of their love. If you are ever a student of Brent’s, he will certainly tell you that there is hardly ever a day that he does not tell Jeanette he loves her. In addition, they still haven’t lost the spark they had since college, and continue to send sweet messages daily. 

Today is the Brossmanns’ wedding anniversary. On their anniversary each year, Brent and Jeanette say their vows, never forgetting to enjoy each moment together. Brent recited his line by heart; it is something that we should all remember going forward this Valentine’s Day: “To lead or to follow as necessary, but most of all, to be at your side to face the challenges of life together.”