Hidden Gems: Meet Madison Clark of Grief Cards

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Madison Clark.

Hi Madison, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Kansas City and grew up in Blue Springs. After I graduated high school in 2011, I left the Midwest with no intention of ever moving back. 

I was hunting for adventure and felt that the place I’d grown up in was stifling that. Over the next ten years, I earned a BA in Creative Writing and a BA in Religious Studies in Pennsylvania, worked as a social justice teaching fellow at a middle school in Massachusetts, worked as a high school teacher in Indonesia, and earned my MA in Conflict Transformation and Social Justice in Northern Ireland. 

I ultimately returned to KC in Spring 2021 due to the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While moving back home wasn’t ever on my to-do list, it was the only viable option with the world shut down. I lived with my family for nine months while I recovered from Belfast’s lockdowns and figured out what I wanted to do next. But since November 2021, things have been a bit of a whirlwind.

Rather than pursue a 9-5 job, I made the transition from part-time freelance writing – which I’d done as a side gig since 2016 – to full-time freelancing, giving me a sense of time freedom that I hadn’t ever had before. Due to this, I finally made the decision to act on an idea that had been in my head since high school: launching a sympathy card company. 

See, my brother, Garrett, died in a car accident in 2008. He was 18, and I was 15, and this changed the entire course of my life. I realized very early in my grief that the vast majority of sympathy cards are not created to honor the memory of someone like him, a 6’5″ kid who was on the cusp of the rest of his life one day and gone the next. 

Instead, the readily available sympathy cards were filled with toxic positivity and assumed spirituality that ultimately did more harm than good despite the good intentions of their senders. Since 2008, I have been hoping to find better sympathy card options in stores. But even as I continued losing loved ones – a soccer teammate in high school, my lifelong neighbor during undergrad, and my undergrad roommate a week after we graduated – I never managed to find sympathy cards that fit the realities of grief and community support during heartbreaking times. 

Being self-employed enabled me to launch Grief Cards in August 2023. Our tagline is simple: Sympathy cards that don’t suck. They’re created for grieving people, by grieving people, so the recipient of the cards is always top of mind for me. The cards are letterpress products locally printed in North Kansas City at Skylab Letterpress. The company is also as sustainable as possible, using eco-friendly paper, compostable sleeve material, and recycled shipping products. 

So, while moving back to Kansas City wasn’t originally a part of my plan, it led me to some incredible professional experiences that I’m endlessly passionate about and grateful for. Today, I continue to work full-time as a freelance writer while also working full-time on building Grief Cards. I also work at Cristo Rey Kansas City High School a few days a week, getting back in touch with my professional roots in urban education. 

Later this year, I’ll also be starting my Executive MBA at UMKC. The program begins right as Grief Cards turns one year old, and I plan to soak up every bit of business knowledge I can while also expanding my KC network. I want to build this company on as strong of a foundation as possible because I believe wholeheartedly that communities need more authentic grief care, whether people are going through loss, divorce, infertility, mental or physical health diagnoses, or any other common grief experience. Grieving people deserve better support tools, and I want to help fill that gap. 

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Grief has played a significant role in my journey. As a result, for my parents and I, there’s a sense of freedom when traveling and trying new things. My brother died just a few miles from our house on his way to tennis practice – and if that can happen so close to home, then why not fearlessly explore what the rest of the world has to offer? 

COVID-19 was also a traumatic experience for me. I was in the last semester of my MA in Conflict Transformation and Social Justice when the pandemic hit, and I ultimately did the entirety of my dissertation research while in a 200-square-foot student housing apartment. 

Lockdown was a very serious affair in Belfast, so I only left my apartment once a week. Understandably, I think I was also abundantly careful because I’m the only child my parents have left; I never want to risk putting them through that loss all over again. 

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Growing up, networking was introduced to me as a Very Serious Practice that was primarily important for people who wore suits to work. So, to me, it didn’t ever seem like networking would be a part of my future. 

But what I’ve learned throughout my career so far is that networking does not have to be formal, serious, or stuffy. Instead, I seek out community-building opportunities that are personable, authentic, and more informal – terms that I’d use to describe my own working style. This has led me to more women-led and queer-led community organizations that prioritize lifting up communities that are historically underrepresented in business. 

I’m also shameless in chatting people up when I’m out and about in Kansas City. In fact, one of my dear friends today is someone who I met at a cafe on the Plaza because I was eavesdropping on his conversation and stated my own interest in the same topic. If you want to ask someone for mentorship support, I’d always say to go for it. Even if they currently don’t have the capacity to help you out, they’ll likely have another connection that they’re happy to introduce you to. 

I’ve learned that finding mentors and building a professional community is surprisingly easy in Kansas City. There are so many entrepreneurial minds here and so many organizations that are working to support small businesses. I’d recommend looking at publications like Startland News and KCUR’s daily newsletter to start learning more about some of these orgs; for women and queer people specifically, I really recommend InnovateHER Kansas City as well as the Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.griefcards.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/griefcards/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094739184011
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/madisontclark/

Image Credits
Kristin Calderone