Reggie Clark and Jamie MoCrazy were instantly attracted to each other after meeting through a mutual friend in June 2017 at a bar called Sue near Salt Lake City, where he lived. They bonded over a shared love of the outdoors.
“We were soon planning a lot of trips,” Mr. Clark said, which, he noted, was not unusual for him and his friends. The difference this time? “We followed almost all of them.” This included group excursions such as camping, ski touring and mountain biking.
“We saw the solar eclipse at the top of the tallest mountain in Idaho,” said Ms. MoCrazy, who last November legally changed her last name from Crane-Mauzy to her old nickname.
But romance wasn’t on her mind at first. “I immediately put him in the friend zone,” she said.
As their friendship progressed, Ms. MoCrazy, a former professional freestyle skier in slopestyle and halfpipe, shared more about herself, including details of a traumatic brain injury she suffered as a result of a skiing accident during a competition on April 11, 2015.
As fate would have it, April 11 is also Mr. Clark’s birthday.
“It was unbelievable to hear what happened to her,” said 30-year-old Mr. Clark, “and I was impressed that the person I had a normal conversation with had been through everything related to TBI “
Ms. MoCrazy, 29, had competed in the World Tour Finals at the World Ski & Snowboard Festival in Whistler, Canada. She was in fourth place after her first run. “I was ranked first or second in slopestyle and halfpipe skiing,” she said.
On her second run, she attempted an off-axis double flip. “I haven’t mirrored enough,” Ms. MoCrazy said. “On landing, I grabbed the edge of my ski and my head hit the snow, causing my brain to bleed in eight places. I damaged my right brain stem, which left my right side paralyzed.”
She was intubated on the mountain before being flown to Vancouver General Hospital, where she was connected to a life-saving brain-monitoring device known as a chimera† She remained in a natural coma for 10 days and was hospitalized for a month and a half. She then received outpatient therapy five days a week.
She had to relearn everything from swallowing to walking. She thanks her family – especially her mother, Grace Mauzy – for her recovery.
In addition to the physical challenges, she has also faced emotional changes. “I would cry several times a day,” she said. “That was much harder than the physical stuff. People don’t recognize the cognitive challenges because they are invisible.”
mr. Clark said it took him a while to understand that the occasional mood swings he’d seen were largely attributed to her brain injury. “But I did understand that it’s very human to have emotional setbacks sometimes,” he said.
About a year after their friendship, in April 2018, Ms. MoCrazy said her feelings for Mr. Clark were starting to change, and she wondered if he felt the same way. So she decided to test the water while visiting Mr. Clark at his home in Salt Lake City.
“He was having breakfast,” she said, “and I asked him bluntly if he’d ever thought of kissing me. He answered with a kiss, mouth still full of Frosted Mini-Wheats.”
Their romantic relationship developed quickly. “We already loved each other so much that our friends made a bet on how long it would be before we started dating,” said Ms. MoCrazy. And before they officially moved out of the friend zone, she added, “My mom was sure we were in love after coming back from a camping trip with star-eyed friends.”
In October, Mr. Clark moved into Ms. MoCrazy’s apartment in Salt Lake City.
Mr. Clark said Ms. MoCrazy’s “positive attitude, willingness to learn, adventurous spirit and genuine kindness lured me in and made me fall in love with her.” He also called her “super goofy.”
Ms. MoCrazy, who grew up in Westport, Conn., works as a motivational speaker and communications director for MoCrazy Strong, the nonprofit that she co-founded with her mother and sister Jeanee Crane-Mauzy. The group provides peer-to-peer counseling to TBI survivors and caregivers. She graduated from Westminster College in Salt Lake City with a degree in communications.
Mr. Clark, who grew up in Glastonbury, Conn., is an operations supervisor, based in Salt Lake City, for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, a company headquartered in Davidson, NC, that makes components for the defense, aerospace and energy industries. He has a bachelor’s degree in physics from Westminster College and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
The couple has learned to navigate Ms. MoCrazy’s cognitive challenges together.
To help calm her down, Ms. MoCrazy said Mr. Clark sometimes quoted her to himself, saying, “A great motivational speaker once said, ‘Look at the view,'” referencing a story of her recovery she now calls out when she feels herself. feeling overwhelmed and having to slow down.
But, she added, she will sometimes tell him, “I just want you to hug me. I don’t need you to fix it.’”
Ms. MoCrazy said she now only cries at what she calls “a normal level.” “I’m the most satisfied I’ve ever been,” she said.
She has also found her way back on the slopes. “I had to learn to ski all over again,” said Ms. MoCrazy. Several months after her accident, she worked with an instructor at the National Ability Center in Park City, Utah. The center “allows people with cognitive and physical disabilities to enjoy the outdoors,” she said.
They’ve declared April 11 their “Alive to Thrive Day,” always doing something to celebrate life – including returning to Whistler for years to come. So it was fitting that the couple got engaged on April 11, 2021, the sixth anniversary of Ms. MoCrazy’s skiing accident and Mr. Clark’s 29th birthday.
After climbing a mountain in Big Cottonwood Canyons, just outside Salt Lake City, Mr. Clark suggested. “We had gone on a ski tour with a photographer to capture the day and our ability to climb peaks together,” said Ms. MoCrazy.
The couple were legally married on May 26 at her family’s Park City home, attended by her mother and her two siblings, Jeanee Crane-Mauzy and Jillian Crane-Mauzy. Jillian, her youngest sibling, performed because she had been designated by the Salt Lake County Registrar to perform the marriage.
They had another ceremony in Whistler, Canada, on May 28, atop the mountain that nearly killed her. There were 80 vaccinated guests in attendance, including the groom’s parents, Gregory Clark and Laurinda Santos, as well as the bride’s mother, Mrs. Mauzy, and father, Jeffrey Crane. The ceremony, also led by Jillian, took place just before sunset at the Whistler Blackcomb resort.
“All my life I dream of getting married on the mountain,” the bride said, adding that the doctor who treated her injuries after the skiing accident, Dr. Mypinder Sekhon, sat in the front row.
“It was great to watch him,” she said, “and the view.”
On this day
When May 26, 2022
Where The bride’s family home in Park City, Utah. The couple had a second ceremony on May 28 atop Whistler Mountain.
A gift from outside Mrs. MoCrazy’s sister, Dr. Amy Crane, died of leukemia two months before the wedding. During the Whistler ceremony, the couple posted an enlarged photo of her in a blue dress, the color she planned to wear as a bridesmaid at the wedding, on a stand so she could be featured in the wedding photos. Before she died, Dr. Crane told her sister, “I’m sorry I can’t come to your wedding,” but she gave the couple a gift that day on the mountain, Mrs. MoCrazy said, “A beautiful day that turned into snow.”
Made with love Mrs. MoCrazy’s mother, Grace Mauzy, made the bride’s wedding dress. “The dress has a four-foot train and has separate tops and bottoms,” said Ms MoCrazy. “So when Reggie and I were doing our first dance, halfway through a long swim, Reggie was able to unzip the skirt and I got out and started the second half, which is more of a ‘Dancing with the Stars’ routine with a partnered back. flip and antenna.”
Over the years The handmade lace veil Mrs. MoCrazy wore is over a century old and was first worn by her great-grandmother, Janet Nicolson Eaton Macomber. “My mother and aunt also both wore the veil,” Ms. MoCrazy said.