For the Love of Mark!

"uncle-brother-friend"

I am sure if you read the last post that I left, you know that I have had a close family member become terminally ill in the recent months. My uncle age 42 was diagnosed with brain cancer on January 17th and unfortunately passed on April 11th. It was a very short, but seemingly long three months. He had a time of it and I can't even explain what the last three months have been like for me and my family. He was in and out of the hospital eight times in those months and everyday was a complete battle in some way or another. He was such a positive person and hoping for a much different outcome, we all were! We had just lost his wife age 41 at the end of September to cancer and he was dealing with grieving and trying to get his life back to what most of us could call normal. He had been taking care of his wife the whole time she had been sick and he put his heart and soul into caring for her. We wanted to do the same for him.

I had been very close to Mark and his wife Mary, being they were only five years older than myself and me having no siblings. I now feel this terrible void and aloneness. I always thought they would be there after my parents passed. I still can't believe that any of this has happened and really it has all felt like a terrible night mare. I just wish that I could wake one morning and it all have been a bad dream.

My whole perspective on life is somewhat at a stand still. I am really trying to sort all of this out and find some way to make sense out of what has happened to two young people who have spent more of their life together than apart. How could this happen so close together and why at such young ages. I have so many fond memories of them both and they were two very full of life kinda people. They did live their lives to the fullest and they enjoyed their lives doing the things they loved to do and being surrounded by all the things they loved most. They were both very talented people, Mark restored old antique cars for a living and was an master at his craft of Metal shaping. Mary was very much like myself, she was artistic, crafty and loved to sew. She mentored me in much of my learning process and I can't tell you how much she inspired me. She had the ability to make things look effortless and everything she created was crafted perfectly.

I am going to miss them both so much and my memories of them are happy ones and I hope they never fade for that is all I have left. I hope to somehow pay tribute to them in my work in the future and follow in their footsteps of living life to the fullest, doing the things I love most and surround myself with the people and things I love.

As I start back to work I hope to poor my heart and soul into creating all things beautiful for the love of Mark and his forgotten Mary! It really did feel like somehow she was forgotten with all that immediately followed her passing. I honestly can say that this experience has absolutely made me a firm believer that two people can be meant to be together and never be without one another. That was Mark and Mary, they had been sweethearts since their early childhood days, fourth grade. They really were one of the same. They spent all their time together and enjoyed all the same things. Mary loved doing all that Mark did with his antique cars and she went everywhere with him. They could have not been more meant for each other. That is the only thing that gives me peace, that they are together again.

So, as I sit here pondering on the last months of my life and remembering theirs, I know that I am lucky to have had the opportunity to have shared all the special times with the two of them and I know that they have each other yet again!

God Bless you Mark and Mary, may you rest in peace together with the lord as you live in eternity. You will be missed dearly and remembered by all!

all my love---your niece,