Mark ever since I met him loved motorcylces, actually it was the first vehicle he purchased when we were together in Jersey. So soon as we got back from San Diego he was on the phone contacting people to purchase a bike. His first bike was a Honda Nighthawk. He loved this bike and was either on it or polishing it up for the first 3 months he owned it. He would take Tyler for rides around the parking lot and him and I would take rides out into the desert. I always felt safe with him. There were times that I would worry about all the traffic he had to deal with daily on the road and even sometimes he would mention that maybe soon he would get a car...but that didn't happen.
We moved quite a few times during our time here in Arizona. Mark enrolled at DeVry Tech School for a 3 year program and graduated on the Dean's List in 2000. During his time there he made alot of friends, Ethan and Thomas and Lawrence became family real quick...they were inseparable. He started working at ST Micro Electronic in 1999 and also bought his most prize possesion his Honda Shadow. This was his kind of bike. It was big and it was fast and it was Black and Blue and beautiful. He looked like a champion when he was on it. Sometimes he would follow behind us on the road with Tyler waving from the back seat and if we stopped at a traffic light he would edge up to the back of our car and tap it with his tire.
Mark was an incredible father. He was so excited when he found out that it was a boy. We had already agreed that if it were a boy that he could name him Tyler. He was so proud of that little guy the first thing he would do when he walked in the house was go and pick Tyler up and kiss him. I never saw a man love like Mark loved Tyler. Not up close and personal the way that it was in our house. There was nothing he wouldn't do for him. As Tyler grew up, Mark grew with him. They played sports, Mark would coach the team. They went on school field trips together. They read together and talked together like there was no difference in age at all...just two humans that loved each other ... no words can touch on this.
In 1997, we decided to move out to Arizona. Both of us were at a point where we were working alot and tired alot and it was just time to do something different. We were lucky and were both able to get layoffs from our jobs. Mark dissolved his part of Absolute Maintenance his cleaning company with Sean Rochette and we sold almost everything we owned at a yardsale. We went and bought our first brand new car together and U-Hauled it with the boys down to Florida where Mark's parents lived. We left the boys and headed out west with not even a clue as to where we were going to live. We found an apartment in Chandler, AZ within the first week...we were both blown away by having palm trees all around us and huge swimming pools and hot tubs it was like being on a permanent vacation!
