Jon Clark Celebrates 20 Years of Easter Tradition, Giving Hope to Patients and Families at Grady
Photo contributed by Jenni Girtman
Jon Clark was a University of Georgia sophomore in 2005, chaperoning a group of middle school boys from Mount Bethel Church of Marietta at a YoungLife camp in Jasper over spring break, when his life changed forever.
During breakfast, he told the youth minister that he didn’t get much sleep the night before and had a migraine. Someone at the camp gave him Tylenol and the last thing he remembers is falling out of his chair onto the floor where he had a seizure.
“Then I didn’t wake up for about five weeks,” said Clark, 40.
He was airlifted to Grady, and after a CT scan, was diagnosed with a grade 5 brain aneurysm, the most severe of its kind. He needed a craniectomy immediately. After a portion of his skull was removed to relieve pressure on the brain from the bleed, he was placed in an induced coma to heal.
Doctors told Clark’s family that if he survived, he could remain in a vegetative state.
“I stayed at Grady for a month and remember nothing of it,” said Clark. “My family essentially lived there with me in the ICU.”
Easter is traditionally a big holiday in the Clark family, typically celebrated with egg hunts and a big meal. So when the holiday rolled around while Clark was hospitalized, his aunts were determined to honor the tradition and ensure no one felt alone.
“I and two of Jon’s other aunts did what Southern women do best. We brought food,” said Jane Clark, Jon’s aunt on his father’s side. “It was a scary time, and we didn’t know what would happen. We wanted to show love as best we could, and we wanted to bring comfort.
“We brought Kentucky Fried Chicken, deviled eggs, potato salad, desserts, my sister’s signature pimento cheese and sweet tea. We spread out all the food for our family, the nurses and for the other families who had loved ones in the ICU.”
Leaning on his faith
After his stint at Grady, Clark was transferred to Shepherd Center. A week or two later, he began to emerge from a medical haze and found himself in a hospital room wearing a foam helmet and unable to move his left arm or leg.
“My fraternity brothers were there when I came to,” said Clark. “They were shaking my hand and saying they were happy to see me. I had no idea what I was doing there. People told me to get better and I asked, ‘Get better from what? And what about finals for the spring semester?‘”
A member of Mount Bethel Church, Clark leaned on his faith to get through those challenging days at Shepherd Center. He drew strength from the verse Joshua 1:9 ― “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Clark stayed at Shepherd for nine weeks, working to regain mobility and learn how to use a wheelchair. No one knew to what extent his memory, comprehension and mobility issues were permanent. Doctors and family explained what happened to him over and again, but it didn’t make sense to Clark for about a year.
When he was discharged from Shepherd, Clark began outpatient therapy and moved back into his childhood home with his parents in Marietta. They added a ramp to the front of the house and put a hospital bed in the dining room.
His days revolved around therapy as he adjusted to using a wheelchair. Then, about six months after his aneurysm, the unexpected happened. He moved his left leg just a little. Three months later, he regained feeling in his arm.
A holiday tradition begins
On Easter 2006, a year after his brain injury, Clark wheeled his chair into Grady flanked by his parents and armed with pastries and kind words.
“I didn’t do it to make myself feel good,” said Clark. “I did it because it’s the right thing to do. My family and I walked that same path, and I got lucky. I wanted to go back to show people no matter how dark it might feel, there’s every reason to have hope. You never know what life might look like in a year.”
Two months later, Clark was ready to learn how to walk again. When he returned to Grady on Easter 2007, he walked through the door with the help of a cane.
“My doctors and therapists were blown away,” said Clark. “I wanted it badly, and I was so happy, but there were still challenges.”
Having regained his mobility, Clark returned to school, but having to use a cane, combined with short-term memory loss and vision impairment caused by his brain injury, proved too difficult.
He left school and set out to find a job, which was another struggle.
“When employers saw me walk in with a cane, they didn’t want to hire me,” said Clark. “I went to job training sites, had a job coach, went to job fairs and countless interviews.”
After a short-term position with his church, he was finally hired in 2014 by Walmart as a front-end associate.
“They were the one company willing to give me a full-time job,” he said.
Love conquers all
Before the aneurysm, Clark imagined a future with a wife and family. Afterward, he was unsure if he would find someone who would accept him and his limitations. That changed in October 2016 when he took a dive into the dating site Plenty of Fish and met his wife.
“Zuly and I met and messaged each other for three or four weeks before meeting at Mazzy’s Sports Bar,” said Clark. “She’s the first person who wanted to see me knowing I’m unable to drive.”
For Zuly Clark, that was never an issue.
“He told me about his injury because I kind of forced him into it,” said Zuly, 43. “The driving thing was a logistical challenge, but it was something we could get past. I can’t get past poor life choices or questionable moral character, but I can get past residual effects from an injury that should’ve taken someone’s life.”
The Clarks married in 2018. Now Zuly joins her husband for his Easter tradition at the hospital.
The first time she was nervous because hospitals make her uneasy, but she baked dozens of muffins, packed lots of clementine oranges and walked through the doors with her husband, sharing his desire to offer comfort through food and words.
“I believe in the power of testimony, and I believe hope is healing,” said Zuly. “Jon has a responsibility to share his testimony of healing with those who are currently walking the same path he has already tread. My role as his wife is to simply encourage him.”
A family affair
After an arduous adoption process, Jon and Zuly welcomed a new addition to their family last July, a 9-month-old son. In a nod to the Bible verse that encouraged Clark during his time at Shepherd, he was named Joshua.
The family of three lives in a Marietta subdivision and attend church at Mount Bethel every Sunday. Zuly is a teacher, Clark still works at Walmart, and they share their evenings at home with Joshua, their answered prayer.
This year marks the 20th year Clark will spend Easter at Grady. This time, in addition to Zuly, they will bring their son along to the place where his daddy’s life was saved.
“Having this brain injury has changed my perspective and focus completely,” said Clark. “When I accepted what happened, it gave me a broader sense of gratitude. I used to be so frustrated over what I couldn’t do, and now I’m just so grateful for what I can do and for the wife and son who have come into my life.
“Some of the patients I meet at Grady are exactly where I once was, and I tell them keep pressing forward. Don’t let current circumstances keep you down. Let my life be an encouragement to yours.”
