Sherrill Keown Holloman didn’t expect to fall in love again — not after losing her husband tragically, not after 18 years of carrying on alone, and certainly not with someone she hadn’t seen in 51 years.
Then last July, a message came from an old college friend; someone she’d once had a crush on. When they finally spoke, something in her heart shifted. That’s when she knew: God wasn’t finished writing her story.
Holloman met Jimmy Griffin in the early 1970s at Mobile College (now the University of Mobile). He was a sophomore transfer. She was a senior, active in Baptist Student Union and the Ministerial Association.
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“I sort of had a little crush on him,” Holloman recalled. “Nothing ever came of it, but we became good friends.”
After graduation she went to Korea as a missionary journeyman. Jimmy finished school, entered the pastorate and started a family. In time, that chapter came to a close. Both would go on to raise three children and build lives rooted in service and faith.
For Holloman that meant settling in Columbia as a farmer’s wife.
“Growing up, I thought I’d be a preacher’s wife because my dad was a preacher,” she remembered. “It was the only life I knew, but I adapted well to the farm. We raised peanuts and cotton.
“I led children’s choir, played piano and went on mission trips. Missions and church have just been my life.”
Holloman’s calling extended beyond her community — she served as a Woman’s Missionary Union director and collection center coordinator for Operation Christmas Child; and participated in mission efforts in Ukraine, Uganda, Kenya, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.
Major change
When her husband, Gary, died in 2006, everything changed.
“It was quite a lot,” she acknowledged. “Managing the farm, the rental houses and helping my son through college. I knew I needed to stay steady.”
Years passed. Church and missions work continued. Holloman spent two years in Senegal through the International Mission Board’s master’s program, teaching missionary children and building cross-cultural relationships.
Then in 2023 a choir performance opened a new door. During a Tuesday night service at the Alabama Baptist State Convention annual meeting at First Baptist Church Montgomery, Holloman sang with the Alabama Baptist Singing Women. Griffin, whose marriage had ended years earlier, sat in the audience.
“I looked up,” he said, “and there she was.”
They hadn’t seen each other in years.
“My heart just warmed,” he recalled. “It was like the Lord put a spotlight on her.”
Griffin didn’t get the chance to say hello that night, but he couldn’t shake the moment.
“I prayed about it,” he said. “And a few months later, I reached out.”
Happy again
That first conversation lasted three hours.
“When Jimmy contacted me, it was like something flipped in my heart,” Holloman said. “At that point, it had been 18 years since (Gary died), and I really hadn’t shown any interest in having a relationship. I wasn’t totally happy, but I was content.
“Then last summer, around the time of our anniversary and Gary’s death, something just felt different. It didn’t hit me as hard. And when Jimmy reached out, I thought — oh, wow. We talked for three hours that afternoon, and I just knew this was God’s timing. For him and for me.”
They began to talk often. Then to visit. By December Griffin had proposed.
“I have to admit that from the start, I was hoping this was where it was going,” he said.
Friends noticed something was different about Holloman.
“Every time someone asked about him, I had the biggest smile on my face,” she said. “I was happy again.”
They were married on May 24 on Holloman’s farm near Dothan. The barn was cleared out, the breeze was soft and steady, and around 100 friends and family gathered to celebrate. Her sons walked her down the aisle. A longtime family friend officiated.
“When she got to me, I said, ‘Doggone, girl,’” Griffin remembered. “She was the most beautiful thing I’d laid my eyes on.”
Now they’re settling into life together on the farm. He recently stepped down as pastor of Tallasahatchie First Baptist Alpine and hopes to continue supply preaching. He has pastored several churches over the years and served as director of missions for Butler Baptist Association.
For now, the two are simply grateful for this season of unexpected joy.
“I never thought I’d love again,” Holloman wrote before the wedding. “But what I never dreamed actually happened. And we have fallen in love.”
In the end, she married a preacher after all — in God’s own timing and in His surprising way. And it couldn’t feel more right.
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