The Saskatchewan curling community is mourning the loss of Aly Jenkins.
“I’ll never forget her fierceness,” said Rachel Fritzler, a former teammate turned close friend.
“When I first started curling with her I don’t think I ever curled with someone that competitive. And I would bring some others to play and they would say to me ‘she’s really intense,’ and I would say, ‘Absolutely not. She’s intense but she’s intense when it needs to be intense.’”
Jenkins, a resident of Warman, died Sunday afternoon after experiencing complications during the labour and delivery of her daughter Sydney. A GoFundMe page has been set up for Jenkins’ husband, Scott, and her two other children, Brady and Avery.
“It’s incredibly sad that I won’t get to watch her be a mom anymore, it’s the most awful thing, but I get to watch her kids and I get to watch her kids grow up and tell them what an amazing person their mom was,” Fritzler said.
Last year Jenkins was one win away from the pinnacle of women’s curling, a trip to the Scotties national championship.
Nancy Martin was curling with Jenkins in Humboldt, vying for a spot.
“The last time we competed together we lost the provincial final to go to the Scotties which was Aly’s dream,” Martin said.
Martin described Jenkins as extremely passionate, but at the same time friendly and supportive to everyone around her.
“She was honestly one of my favourite people,” Martin said. “Her passion for life in general, she was such an amazing soul, so funny, she would be so passionate and then she’d turn around and you’d be falling over in laughter.”
Since a GoFundMe page was set up contributions have surpassed $89,000. For Martin it’s not surprising.
“It shows how close the community is,” she said. “I was looking at the comments and some people, I know some of them don’t know Aly, some of them know me … we’re really one big family.”
