Jason Clawson and Kirsten Clawson have found a true fairytale love – twice. After experiencing the heartbreak, sorrow, and pain of losing their spouses to cancer, they found each other.
Now, they reside in Vineyard, Utah, with Mr. Clawson’s two sons, 17-year-old Boston and 11-year-old Cooper, and a miracle – their toddling daughter Macy.
Mr. Clawson, 48, is a consultant, while Mrs. Clawson, 46, is a human resources director. In an interview with The Epoch Times, they shared their touching story of loss and finding each other after losing their beloved spouses, Valerie and Cody.
Interestingly, their late spouses both hailed from Ogden and even their spouses’ parents knew each other in high school.
“They (their late spouses) grew up together. It’s too coincidental,” Mrs. Clawson remarked.
Clawson’s first wife, Valerie, was the sister of one of Clawson’s friends. Despite some hesitation, Mr. Clawson eventually asked Valerie out.
However, on the day of their date, she mentioned having other commitments, leading to the cancellation of their plans. Valerie felt regretful for turning him down and later called him, leading them to decide to meet for lunch.
“From there, our relationship blossomed, and we grew to understand each other more deeply,” Clawson said.
They got married in 2005 and led a happy life, building a family with two sons.
In 2018, Valerie underwent exploratory surgery due to a large mass in her stomach, which revealed stage four colon cancer.
“It dropped a bombshell in our lives,” Clawson said. “It’s something you can’t predict or prepare for. It permanently altered and changed my life and the lives of many others.”
The next nine months involved chemotherapy and overcoming the initial shock. Ultimately, Mr. Clawson lost his beloved wife.
“It was a short and quick period of time; I didn’t have much space to prepare, truly enjoy, or share memories,” he stated.
Mr. Clawson recalled waking up the day after her funeral, thinking, “How do I step up, be a father to two kids, and be a healer for others going through the darkest moments in their life? I can’t do it. I’m not good at it. This is the worst thing God has ever done to me; it’s not fair.”
After moving from Idaho to Utah, Mrs. Clawson met her first husband Cody through an online dating site. She initially wanted to make friends after settling into the new environment.
“I contacted Cody, and the day I moved into my new house, he was there waiting to drive me into town,” Mrs. Clawson said. “We never separated after that and got married a few months later.”
Before their marriage, Cody had lived in several other states, feeling a calling to leave Utah. Therefore, Mrs. Clawson joyfully crossed the country with him in 2020, eventually settling in Memphis, Tennessee.
“That was April 2, 2020,” she said. “We had just bought a house. Due to lockdown restrictions, we were isolated, and Cody started feeling unwell.”
Since then, Mrs. Clawson had a premonition.
“I immediately knew it was bad,” she said. “I couldn’t explain why, but I just knew it was bad.”
Initially thinking it was COVID-19, and with Cody having type 1 diabetes, she became even more anxious about what could happen. After calling the doctor, they were instructed to rush Cody to the hospital immediately. Due to the pandemic, Mrs. Clawson wasn’t even allowed to be with him at the hospital. Three doctors informed her that while Cody tested negative for COVID-19, they still suspected it.
Subsequently, Cody started feeling better, but more blood tests were conducted. The results showed his white blood cell count was extremely low, necessitating an immediate blood transfusion. After being separated from her husband once again, Mrs. Clawson anxiously waited for the results of another medical consultation. They discovered he had leukemia.
“We had a lot of hope,” Mrs. Clawson mentioned. “We said, ‘Ok, it’s leukemia, but there are types of leukemia that are highly treatable, so we hope to figure out which one.'”
Unfortunately, all test results delivered bad news.
“Each time they came with something, it was the worst-case scenario,” she shared.
Mrs. Clawson described the period as a very low point for her. She couldn’t be with her husband at the hospital; he had to stay there for treatment, and due to travel restrictions, their families couldn’t visit either. Additionally, Cody didn’t respond well to chemotherapy, and they were once told he had only 12 to 24 hours left.
“He ended up lasting another seven days, which was a gift because it allowed his parents to come here and spend that time with him… He passed away at the end of 2020,” Mrs. Clawson said.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Clawson navigated their grief processes in different ways, but ultimately, their journeys through sorrow led them to each other.
For Mr. Clawson, he eventually reached out to a group of his closest friends, letting them know he needed help to get through his wife’s passing. After having a conversation with them about his struggles, they visited him and assisted with basic household chores.
“This helped me form a circle that gave me the ability to handle hard things,” he said. “It got me started feeling happier, making my sons healthier, and starting to be a father again, rather than the person who came home in pain.”
After his close friends helped his family emerge from the grief several months later, he informed them he could stand on his own two feet again, although they still occasionally checked in on him. During this time, Mr. Clawson started to go beyond himself. He took a summer off from counseling work to reinvest in his sons’ lives. They created a wishlist of things they wanted to do as a family.
“Our goal was to find happiness, experience things we hadn’t done before, all while honoring my wife,” Clawson shared. “One item on the list was to create a lemonade stand.”
They planned to use the money they raised to create “sunshine baskets” for others who had experienced loss.
“One day, during COVID, we set up a lemonade stand outside my house,” Mr. Clawson said. “It wasn’t easy, but within two hours, we raised $1,500. We started rolling out these sunshine baskets, and we would deliver them to people who were struggling like us – people with cancer, those who had lost loved ones, or people going through emotional struggles.”
“My kids and I would hold a basket, show up at someone’s door, and bring them these sunshine baskets. We’d hug them, cry with them… In those moments, we could feel happy before returning home. It became a lifestyle of helping others for us.”
As they began delivering these baskets, one of his sons suggested, “Dad, why don’t we pick one person from each state in the U.S. and deliver a basket to them?”
Initially, Mr. Clawson thought he wouldn’t have enough time to manage the project.
“But as a father, seeing my son start capturing visions of hope rather than struggles, I said, ‘Let’s do this!'” he shared.
With the help of social media, they sent out sunshine baskets to individuals from every state in America, even adding some from other countries.
Reflecting on this process, Mr. Clawson said, “It led me on a path of self-discovery, helping me grow with my kids. I showed up in front of people I’d never seen before, did things I’d never done, and challenged myself to become the person I am today.”
While Mrs. Clawson never received a basket, seeing them on social media was the first time she became aware of Mr. Clawson.
After Cody’s passing, she moved back to Utah. A few months later, a close friend suggested she socialize more and connect with others on a dating app. To get her friend to stop pushing her, Mrs. Clawson joined the app, intending to close it the following day. However, the first person she saw on the app was Mr. Clawson, whom she recognized from social media.
“It surprised me because I knew him. But I didn’t mind,” she said. “Dating wasn’t my plan… but I thought, God must have other plans for us.”
Before long, Mr. and Mrs. Clawson started talking on the phone daily. In fact, their first conversation lasted three hours and they had talked for 50 to 60 hours over the phone before meeting in person.
Their discussions delved into deeper topics, including the grief they had experienced and how they coped with the pain of losing their partners.
After getting to know each other through phone conversations, they decided to meet. With both harboring doubts about their relationship’s future due to grief and dedication to their late partners.
However, a shift happened during their first date. As they sat on a bench outside a mall, Lauren Daigle’s song “You Say” played on the radio, a significant song for both their late spouses. They were both emotional and wondered why.
After discussing their true emotional connections with the song, their relationship shifted.
“Sitting on that bench, falling in love, the song playing, it was like our spouses were saying, ‘Go and be happy!'” Mrs. Clawson said.
That was the moment their relationship truly began to blossom, raising a question: How would they introduce Mrs. Clawson to Mr. Clawson’s sons?
They were both extremely nervous about the outcome, but they didn’t need to be.
One day, while Mr. Clawson and his sons were watching a movie together, they asked, “Dad, if she’s your girlfriend, why don’t you just invite her over?”
Ultimately, their wedding became a poignant and powerful union of their two families.
“It’s definitely not what either of us had planned for our lives, but we’re grateful for the blessings we’ve received, and now, we hope to help as many people as possible,” Mr. Clawson said.
“Kirsten and I are on a journey of helping others,” Mr. Clawson continued. “We are inspired to create an Instagram account called ‘Light After Grief’, aiming to inspire, uplift, and help people finish their journeys, drawing from our experiences.”
Arsh Sarao contributed to this report.