Brink’s first novel, "Anything Can Happen on the River", was published in 1934. Brink wrote fiction throughout her life, and added poetry and painting to her later accomplishments. After 55 years of marriage, her husband died in 1973, and she died eight years later of heart failure at age 85 in La Jolla, California. In her family, the name Caroline or Carol has been given as either a first or middle name to the oldest female child without interruption for at least seven generations, continuing to the present day.