Life is short. All the more reason to live it out as fully as possible and make each day count no matter how hard some of those days are. Even through periods of grief and bereavement, there is still hope, still something to live for, and for some, the chance to raise thousands of dollars for charity, win awards and national recognition–and another shot at love.
Losing your spouse is devastating. So when Clare was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression after the death of her husband, her life became even more difficult than expected.
It was when Clare’s psychologist recommended that she take up knitting to ease her nerves (believe it or not, the health benefits are aplenty including a lower heart rate and blood pressure, reduced stress hormones and reduced pain) that her life slowly shifted into something bigger than she imagined. It started small. At the hospice where Clare’s late husband was taken care of, someone made a passing comment about how Clare had “yarn-bombed” the hospice–she spent her time knitting Christmas decorations and Easter bunnies which helped raise over $1,500 for the hospice.
Her handiwork began to amass an Internet following. Clare’s creations were so well received online, she created a project where she invited people to knit hearts and send them to her so they could get placed within a collective, in memory of a loved one. All of a sudden, she was swarmed with 52,000 hearts from people all over the world including the UK but also as far as Australia and America.
Clare’s story takes a unique turn when she goes on TV as part of her international knitting project for the hospice to ask, “Please can anyone who has any wool send it to me?” which is how she met Ian. Ian’s wife had died 12 months prior, and she left a lot of wool. So, when he came home from work and saw Clare on TV, he contacted the hospice. The two widows sent each other a few emails, arranged a meetup and connected wholeheartedly. “It’s a fairy tale and we couldn’t have written a script for it to be like this. To be bereaved but in love is tricky but we both worked out that you can still grieve and love, and we know we have a great future together.”
Click on the video below to listen to how Clare and Ian’s love story was stitched together with wool.
