Page 11 - CJA Spirit Spring 2021

A Legacy Hyour child’s name ALUMNAE ENTREPRENEUR
ow many times
have you said

of in the last year? Thousands?
Hundreds of thousands?
For 13 months, Jenn Kirkpatrick Hinkle '00
was no different. Though her son, Ollie, was
born with a congenital heart defect (CHD),
she was a mom who said her son’s name
countless times every day, believing she’d
say it countless times every day for the rest
of her life. But when he was 13 months
old, Ollie got the flu. The combination
of the virus and the heart condition was
too much for his little body to handle.
Oliver Hinkle died on January 3, 2012.
“I fell to the ground and wailed,”
Jenn remembers of that day. “I didn’t
have the strength to stand up.”
Her husband, Mark, helped pick
her up, “literally and figuratively.”

Mark and Jenn Kirkpatrick Hinkle ’00 with their daughters,
Maddie and Annie, who are holding a photo of their brother, Ollie.
SPRING 2021 SPIRIT MAGAZINE 9