Lemons to Living

The Resilient Life of Jennifer Hurley

Each month Ponca City Monthly will be highlighting an area community member in our Good Citizen Spotlight. The goal of each spotlight is to honor a citizen who is making our community a better place every day through the goodness, kindness and strength of his/her character.

We’ve all heard the adage about life handing us lemons and what we’re supposed to do next. But what does this look like in practice? What would you do with real-life lemons, like the deaths of loved ones and a stroke that landed you in a wheelchair?

We all face difficulties in life and we all get to choose how we let those difficult things shape us. You can let the hard things harden you. You can make yourself small, shrinking away from life. You can also choose to take the hard things and make them work for you.

Upon meeting Jennifer Hurley, it’s immediately clear that she has taken the difficult things life has dealt her and used them to hone her strength and resilience. Being in her presence is akin to basking in the sun on a warm spring day. She is wholehearted, kind, full of light and quite good at making proverbial lemonade.

Jennifer was born in Texas and grew up in Ponca City. Her dad, Bill Hicks, served as principal at Po-Hi for many years and was even her principal, which Jennifer loved. Jennifer’s mom was in education as well, working as an elementary school teacher. On June 13, 1998, Jennifer married her husband, Kevin. The couple had two daughters, Maddie and Callie. Early in their marriage, Jennifer’s husband was diagnosed with cancer. He fought the disease for six years before passing away, leaving Jennifer to raise her two daughters alone. Maddie was in 3rd grade and Callie was in Pre-K when they lost their father in 2011. One year later, Jennifer’s father passed away.

Jennifer admits that it has been hard raising her two daughters alone. But she quickly counters that by championing the incredible support system she has with her family, friends and church, especially her mom. “My mom is my rock. She is amazing,” says Jennifer.

Six years after losing her husband, Jennifer suffered a debilitating stroke on Feb. 11, 2017. She talks about her recovery from the stroke and what that time meant to her. “The doctors just kept saying, ‘You dodged a huge bullet’.” Jennifer had a massive stroke and would go on to spend three months recovering in Tulsa at St. Francis in the Traumatic Brain Injury Unit. Jennifer did not let the stroke stop her from making the most of life. On the contrary, she says, “That whole experience was just something else for me. It really made me realize some things are more important than others. The things I thought were important were not important at all. Having your friends and your family, that’s the most important thing to me.”

Jennifer spent her three months of recovery getting to know the other patients on her floor. While doing her own physical therapy and learning to walk again, Jennifer never missed a moment to lift up those around her. She could often be found in any room but her own, making friends and encouraging other patients during their exercises. She was so effective at motivating other patients, St. Francis offered her a job as a Mentor in the Physical Therapy unit after she was discharged. While a job with that kind of commute wasn’t in the cards for Jennifer, she believes she would have enjoyed it immensely. Each year she celebrates Feb. 11 in honor of having overcome so much.

One of the things that brings Jennifer joy is her job at Peckham School. She works with special needs students and as the secretary for the school. She’s been there since 2007 and says the work is one of the most rewarding things she’s ever done. She tells a story about a student who had suffered a traumatic brain injury. He came to her at the beginning of a school year barely talking. He didn’t know more than A,B,C and wasn’t counting higher than 5. “By Christmas he was counting to 100, knew all his ABC’s and