Running for life

Graduate student Caroline Wollner will run marathon in memory of her fiance

By KODI HIRST
Staff Writer

OMarch 14, USC graduate student Caroline Wollner will join approximately 20,000 runners participating in the L.A. Marathon and run the 26.2 miles in remembrance of her fiancé, who died 17 days after he proposed.
"He would always challenge me to run a marathon," said Wollner, who is studying health administration and gerontology. "After he was killed, it was something I wanted to do for him."
In 1997, Wollner trained with her fiancé, Alan Hook, when he ran in the Boston Marathon.
It has been nearly nine months since Hook died in a bicycle accident on June 26, 1998 in Switzerland while on vacation with Wollner. He was crossing a busy intersection when he was struck by a car, and died in Wollner's arms at the scene.
Through people sponsoring her in the L.A. Marathon, Wollner has raised $2,000 for the 1st Lt. Alan Michael Hook Memorial Fund, which provides a $1,000 scholarship to a senior graduating from Hook's alma mater, South Torrance High School.
"It was my way of making something good out of something devastating," Wollner said. The memorial fund was set up during the week of the service as friends and family members started giving donations to Hook's family. Wollner said she feels Hook would be pleased with the fund.
"He was passionate about public service and helping kids who were disadvantaged," said Wollner of her fiancé.
Alone in Switzerland, Wollner was taken in by one of the first people on the scene, Swiss train conductor Werner Amacher. Calling Amacher her "Swiss family," he helped her make arrangements to fly to Prague where she had relatives. Her brother, Peter Wollner, met her there and accompanied her back to the states, where she found a whole community ready to give her support.
"I have had people I don't know call or write, sharing stories of similar things happening to them," Wollner said. "The South Bay community support has been incredible."
Although Wollner is able to talk about her experience now, she remembers when it was much more difficult and describes the last eight months as a "roller coaster."
"Some days I am very positive and I focus on my faith, hope and love," Wollner said. "Other days I miss him so much, I feel the devastation." Wollner's mother, Jindra Wollner, said she is awed by her daughter's strength and remembers when Wollner spoke at the funeral.
At the funeral, Wollner read from Hook's diary from the day they got engaged. He had written of their future marriage and life together.
"It was very beautiful," Jindra Wollner said of her daughter's speech. "It was amazing how she could handle herself."
Hook and Wollner met in 1994 through mutual friends, and Wollner remembers how they "just clicked." After talking all night, Hook jokingly asked Wollner to marry him. After two years, they began dating.
In preparation for the marathon, Wollner has been running about 30 miles a week, and she has set the goal of completing the marathon in four-and-a-half hours. Joining her for some morning runs is neighbor Kathy Black, who had run in the Palos Verdes Marathon three times and the L.A. Marathon once.
"Caroline never ceases to amaze me," Black said. "She just perseveres. She can do anything she sets her mind to." Black said she recognizes the significance of the marathon to Wollner.
"It means the world to her because it is for Alan," Black said.

Copyright 1999 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 136, No. 34 (Monday, March 8, 1999), beginning on page 1 and ending on page 11.