Heather Gleason was born in Butte, Montana on May 6, 1971. She lived a vibrant life until the day God took her home on August 14, 2011.  Heather grew up in Butte, Montana along with her three brothers and three sisters. She married Jason Gleason on August 12, 1995. She  loved working as a medical coder and health program coordinator. She and her husband Jason also served as co-leaders for the GenNext Youth Ministry at Great Falls Christian Center in Great Falls, Montana. Heather was a loving mother of three young boys who were truly “her everything”.  She loved spending time with her twin sister Dawn, sisters Nicky and Narda and Brothers Aaron, Warner and Eric. Heather loved reading books and traveling with Jason and her three sons on countless adventures which often brought them to Southern California and as far away as Hawaii. 

July 16, 2011 is a day that Heather’s life and the lives of her husband, three boys and their family were marked by profound tragedy and forever changed. Heather unexpectedly suffered a stroke (blood clot) to the basilar artery in the back of her brain. She survived for 29 days in a horrific “locked-in” (total paralysis with full awareness) state until going home to Jesus on August 14, 2011.  On the day of her stroke, Heather and her husband Jason would share their last words as they said “I love you” in the Emergency Department where he was working at the time that she was brought in as a patient.  Jason and Heather would spend the next 29 days of her life writing the final pages of their love story, a marriage that spanned 16 years.  They celebrated their sixteenth wedding anniversary under the stars in an outdoor hospice garden two days before her passing.

Jason, his three boys, family and countless friends made it their mission  during those  

29 days to remind Heather that despite her heartbreaking circumstance, she was still a 

beautiful, vibrant woman of God, a nurturing mother to three young boys, enduring sister 

and friend. Heather’s legacy of humble generosity and passion for life lives on through

her husband Jason and her three boys affectionately known as the “four coyotes” as well

as her twin sisters Dawn and Nicky, other  siblings and countless friends.