Spent some time updating this website.  Worked on the Courageous Heart Medal page and while I was doing this amused myself with some things I remembered Mark saying.  All of them have some sort of story attached.

If anyone has a memory like this....would love to know.  It's the memories that keep him alive for us.  It is that time of year when we are needing them the most.

Here's my short list so far:

Things Mark said

1. Ok, I’ll pay half for the damn thing

2. Do you think I want to get electrocuted?

3. My damn tree is on fire

4. I hate this junky place (the White House)

5. I visit God on the golf course.  He is always there. I don’t need to go to church.

6. It’s always 72 degrees on any golf course

7. He’s my mini-me  (Michael)

8. I think I am going to cry (when learned of Daniel ‘s middle name)

9. Can you get me some sheets with a higher thread count?

10. Just how old do they think I am? ( RE: fireman coming to visit and offering him a ride in the fire truck when he is feeling better……very very  edited!!)

11. Mom, don’t buy any green bananas

12. I have cancer and you won’t buy me Bagel Bites!?!?!?

13. Just go….they will have the Rocky dvds (3am on directive to go to Walmart…and they did have them)

14. Pearl, will you marry me?

15. Do you think Walmart can fix Dad’s truck before Dad gets up?

16. Oh, he did come!!!! (The Easter Bunny)

17. He didn’t hide it (Easter Bunny left things on table…he was 19 years old)

18. Oh, since John moved out, I don’t get an Easter basket anymore

19. I saw him!  I saw him! And he is wearing a Twins uniform!!! (Tommy Herr)

20. I lost Dad’s money.  I won this on $50 I got out of the ATM

21. I bought the ring.  I gave them the money (Coming out of 7-11 with no change from my last $20 for milk, giving me a ring)

22. I gotta tell you Mom, I move home from Memphis I won’t be mowing the lawn

23. Mom,  that embroidery or whatever……it annoys people!!

24. Dad….thank you very much.  

25. Mom….that’s your job.

26. Mom…..you are a really good nurse.  Just wanted you to know.

27. Put in there that I loved John with my whole heart (regarding his obituary)

28. She thinks she is Dr. Kevorkian

29. I am not mad at anybody.

30. Tell everyone not to touch me.

31. Mick…..the turtle….it’s gone!!!

32. Mick…the turtle…it’s gone!!!  (so worth repeating a second time)

33. Here…you ask him yourself.

34. Dr. Stahle said not to lose sleep over it.

35. Don’t say anything to Tim…..he’s on vacation.  We will tell  him next week.

36. Why did you tell Scottie? He worries .

37. Tell him to get that soccer stuff out of my son’s crib

38. Has Dad started to lose his hair?

39. You spoil them

40. I think I want to eat.  I want cauliflower and Honey Nut Cheerios.

41. I haven’t eaten in about ten days, I can wait another 20 minutes I guess.

42. Sometimes if you stand up it helps (in doing jumps on Mario Brothers video games

43. Shut up , Mom.  You  don’t know what they are doing.  (watching Poker on tv)

44. Quit playing that game, you are horrible at it.

45. Uncle Mike took us on a bum tour.

46. Yes, she is a lot of fun (Aunt Debe on World Series Night)

47. Is Tabby a northern Baptist or a southern Baptist?  I met a girl here she might approvve of

48. They are real. They were  here  (regarding angels)

49. Ok, I’ll wear them everyday. (on getting a $50 pair Tommy Hilfiger swim trunks when he was 8 years old….and he did wear them everyday)

50. I was going to go all summer and not take a shower

51. I gotta tell you, not this week.

52. I want to get Tabby something nice from me...think shse will like this?

53. Just sign your name here mom.

54. It's going to be huge.

55. I don't want Juliet to know where we went.

56. Did you break my toilet?

57. It's like sleeping under a placemat

Really!?!?!  Two years since I actually posted something.  Silly because a day, and hour doesn't go by when I am not thinking of Mark.  There are several days that it really hits home and one of those days is today....Mother's Day. My ninth Mother's Day without being able to hug my boy....and the ninth one that he has sent his ambassador to deliver a gift to me.

 Don and me left early this morning to attend Mass with my mother and to treat her and Bob to a brunch at the Blue Owl.  Before we left, Don gave me a statue of four monkeys...see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil followed up with an exasperated looking dad/monkey.  He also gave me a nurse statue that will go wit our bricklayer statue watching over Mark's garden.

We came home to find a beautiful blue box on the porch with a stunning dragonfly necklace made out of Swarovski crystals.  I immediately put it on and will not take it off.

Thank you very much, Mark's secret delivery person.  Have I wondered who could be doing this over the past nine year....sure have.  I have even tried to guess.....for a couple of years I thought it might be Butch Marmon, but when Butch passed away and the secret gifts kept coming....I knew it wasn't him.  I don't ever ever want to know so if the person reading this knows....keep it to yourself.  It makes my day and I steadfastly believe that they are actually from Mark.

Later this afternoon I am going to be spending some time with John and Tabitha and the boys.  What joy this family gives me.  There is nothing that makes me prouder than being Mark and John's mom....and mother in law to our beautiful Tabitha.  My heart sings because of Michael, dances because of Danny and giggles and laughs because of Joey.

In one month, I will have been working at Barnes Hospital on the same division for 39 years,  There is still some energy in this old nurse for another good 5-6 years.  I am going for the full boat, the full pension, the full of everything.  Until that time I will hang in there as long as they will have me.

In November, Donnie and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.  Lucky me...not only did I get to be John and Mark's mom....I also married my best friend.  We are planning a trip to the West Coast in October....starting with a few days in Portland, Oregon and then heading south.  A very important highlight of any of our October trips is celebrating Mark's birthday.  A couple of years we were in Aruba and on year celebrated by taking a looonnnnggg walk to the National Zoo in Washington DC to see the pandas.  Mark had made  his Grandma Joyce make that walk several times when we went to DC when he was 4 years old ( "I hate this junky place" when he toured the White House.)  This year.....it will be an especially special Mark birthday as we are planning to have dinner on his birthday with a person who was very special to him....Mandy Strout.

In t he meantime.....I am going to enjoy my Mother's Day later with John.....and will be spending a lot of time looking in the mirror at the beautiful necklace delivered to me.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart......it means everything to me.