Mark the Great

Memories of a Sister

This is a post from Kathy Wride Mark's Sister:

As I’ve thought about my memories of my little brother I can’t help but think of his love for people. He could strike up a conversation with anyone. Immediately he would bring in his wonderful humor and make a stranger feel at ease. He constantly looked for the good in people and wasn’t afraid to tell others how good they were. Everyone felt good around Mark. When he was faced with the issue of finding a different kind of work not so taxing on his body, his first concern wasn’t for himself, but for his workers. They were from Mexico and would earn money from Mark and send it to their families in Mexico. He really struggled with this issue.

In high school he was a well known and liked kid. As any high school student, he had many things going on at the same time. One day I received a call from Mark at the high school asking me to come and get him. He had finished the things he needed to do after school and was ready to come home. This was a time before cell phones so he had called from the office phone (which they were ready to close). He said he would meet me outside in the parking lot. As I gathered the keys and told Mom that Mark had called and I was headed up to get him, she asked me what he had done with the car he took to school. I couldn’t call him back. I had to drive up to the school and tell him he had a car there and could drive himself home. As I arrived at the school, there he stood by the car with a sheepish grin. After he called me he had went outside to wait in the parking lot and noticed his own car sitting there.

Mark has told me this story about himself about a year ago and a neighbor reminded me of it. He tells it a lot better, but I’ll do the best I can: He was living in Orem with a couple of roommates. They were good guys, but he wanted to tease one especially. Girls were always visiting this roommate. So Mark went to the store and bought 2 pies. He went to the apartment of some very popular girls and gave them both of the pies. He said one was for them and would they please deliver the other to him personally at a specific time in his apartment to make this roommate jealous. The girls followed thorough—They rang the doorbell and asked “Is Mark here?” When Mark replied I’m in here, they said “Oh Mark, we love you. We brought you this pie.” He said his roommate’s mouth dropped wide open. The next day, Mark did the same thing. He took 2 pies to the girls again and asked them to do the same thing that night and the girls followed through just as before. His roommate was amazed again. This was a funny small prank he pulled on his roommate. A little addition to this story is that the girls returned the next night with another pie for him that he had not delivered to them! Everyone loved Mark!!!