ELLSWORTH
On Aug. 7, 1947, Gail was born in Bayonne, N.J., a fact she was proud of all her life. She was the second daughter of Elsie and Charles Oliver. After graduating from Bayonne High School, she attended Jersey City State College, St. Peter’s Prep College and Christ Hospital School of Nursing. Before teaching, she got married and gave birth to two beautiful and intelligent daughters. The family moved to Pittstown, N.J., rightly nicknamed the Garden State.
Gail married Bill Clawson, a fellow educator. A few years later, they learned Bill had ALS, a debilitating and usually terminal disease. Gail’s nursing skills came into play as his health declined and on his birthday he passed away.
After devoting herself to Bill, raising two children, caring for parents, completing her education and surviving personal losses, she moved to Naples, Fla., where cousin Donna resided with her husband, Rick. There she took advantage of her subtropical surroundings and effected a personal transformation. The Jersey girl became a SCUBA diver, boated, fished and adapted to the clear waters of the Gulf and Keys. She taught science at Immokalee High School in a migrant community near the Everglades.
Students assumed Gail Clawson to be the wife of Bill Clausen, their middle school teacher. Slightly intrigued, Gail took advantage of a meeting at his school to introduce herself to him. Unconsciously, she expected someone resembling her previous button-down Bill. She was not spellbound. He struck her as “swarthy.” Later, Gail transferred to a Naples, Fla., middle school. A year later, I, none the wiser, also transferred to the same school where a professional relationship evolved into much more.
We were married Dec. 23, 2000. After a honeymoon in New Orleans, we returned to teaching and to our condo on the Gulf. Also in 2000, Gail and I bought a house in Downeast Maine, to which we would flee from Florida summers.
Next, we moved to Ocala, Fla., and then to New Jersey, where Gail taught science and I nannied our baby granddaughter, Maya. Fatherhood had previously been missing from my life, but I embraced my new role, and Maya made the job easy, even a joy! Then, we bought a home in Willis, Texas, north of Houston, where pregnant daughter Jeanine lived. Yeah, Texas. Meanwhile, Chrissie sold her Jersey home and was enticed to live in an RV with Gail, baby Maya, two dogs, a cat and myself in Jacksonville, Fla. It was fun!
Christina then got a job in Dallas, we sold our Willis home and moved to Dallas and later Jeanine also moved to there. Gail couldn’t be happier to be near her beloved daughters and Maya. All the while, we trekked to Maine every summer to work on our retirement home where family and friends visited. Summer 2018 saw us again in Maine. Gail flew to Seattle to join Jeanine for her 50th birthday celebration on an Alaskan cruise. They had a great time but by the end of the cruise, Gail returned to Dallas with Jeanine. She knew something was wrong. Tests and scans in early July gave the awful diagnosis: ovarian cancer, well advanced.
With characteristic optimism, Gail faced chemo, massive surgery and more chemo. But, the cancer prevailed. Ever the fighter, Gail continued to cook, encouraged her family, finished an ovarian cancer 5K walk and did her best to show nothing but love, strength and a positive attitude.
Seeking a second opinion and admission to a trial study, Gail, Jeanine, Chrissie and I drove to M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston and learned her situation was much worse than thought: Gail had not months left, but days. In her mother’s last visit with her oncologist, tearful Jeanine asked, “How did we get here?” Ever the wit, Gail responded, “Presumable, the tollway.” That’s my girl.
In the care of hospice, Gail was surrounded at home by family when she peacefully passed away April 25. She is survived by daughters Jeanine Lagoda, Christina Lagoda, Christina’s daughter Maya and husband, Bill.
An ardent advocate of Christ’s teachings regarding our “neighbors,” and a staunch supporter of nonviolence and equality, Gail did not wish a memorial service. We promised instead two life celebrations: one in Texas and another in Maine. Her family and friends in New Jersey, Florida, Maine and Texas will miss her enthusiasm and love, to say nothing of her culinary skills! Instead of flowers, donations may be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center, P.O. Box 548, Montgomery, AL 36177-9621 and ovarian cancer research.