September 2018 Mark's 2nd Annual Celebration of Mark's life and a new story about Mark

Mark's friend Alan from Juneau Alaska, came to visit us. He brought with him a great new story about Mark. It seems that the hospital in Juneau where Alan works, has a new respiratory therapist. She shared with Alan that she last worked on the island of Guam. Alan told her that he had a respiratory therapist friend who worked in the Northern Marianas Island. She asked what his name was and when Alan said "Mark Richardson", the lady said "Oh I knew him" She went on to say that Mark had gone to the airlines flying out of Saipan and Guam and solved the problem of how to safely transport babies in the planes: babies who needed a higher level of care than available in Saipan and Guam. This isn't the first time that we have mentioned Mark's name to someone elsewhere in the world and the person said: ''Oh I knew him."

It's not too late to contribute to Mark's memorial fund. See previous posts for details. Send a small check to keep the fund alive.

August 21 2018  One year and 11 days After Marks Death on August 10, 2017

Mark's sister Stephanie and I passed the anniversary of Mark's death together in Germany where she lives and works. We had just gotten back from a tour of Turkey in Mark's memory.
Mark so loved to travel. If you've read the early blog entries you may recall that Mark was near or past his 3 months to live prognosis  and we were living in Bangkok so he could get his chemotherapy and radiation. I noticed he seemed quite depressed. Who wouldn't be if they had outlived their expiration date stamped on their medical record. Not one to assume, I asked him why he seemed depressed. "Well Mom, I'm never going to get to travel again." Without hesitation I asked; "Where would you like to go?" His reply was "Amsterdam." I immediately got on the computer and got us plane reservations to Amsterdam. There was a small problem in that all the rooms in Amsterdam were booked for the queens silver anniversary on the throne. I had a genealogist friend in Eden Germany who had a nephew in Amsterdam. The nephew got us the last two rooms in Amsterdam. Mark looked like my grandpa. He looked very sick but a few visits to the coffee shops and smoking special weed, he perked up, started eating and drinking beer with me and flirting with the girls and wanting to go to art galleries. Don't underestimate the power of weed. We ended up going by train to Germany and our Emden genealogist friend Heinrich and his wife Elke picking us up and took us to the home of relatives coming down from my great grandfather's brother. Ironically Mark recovered from stage 4 cancer but our friend Heinrich so robust at the time got cancer and died. This is so sad. It's real easy to hate the word cancer and cancer itself. Heinrich is sorely missed as is now Mark who died years after Heinrich.

On July 2, 2018 A Computer Room dedicated to Mark Richardson - we went to Reynosa Mexico to the Ramon Mario Bahena Rodriguez (RMBR) school and dedicated a computer room. It is named for Mark Richardson. Mark would love this honor and the fact that his memorial fund supplies books, bookcases, back packs and other needed items to the school.  Anyone who wants to donate can write a check to the Rotary Club of Austin University Area (RCAUA) and mail it to the Rotary Club of Austin University Area c/o Ron Lantz, 9517 Ketona Cove, Austin, Tx 78759. Please mention on the check that it is for the Mark Richardson memorial fund. It can be a small check. It is tax deductible. Just be recognized as honoring Mark for all his struggles with cancer and the effects of chemo and radiation for the rest of his life.  When he was treated at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, ports were not in use. He was stuck with needles many times each of the many days he went to the hospital. He was so sick we had to carry bags in the taxis for when he had to volmit. He was very sick. Most of us would have stopped treatment and accepted our expiration stamp. I had friends who did this, but not Mark. Whatever it took to beat cancer, he was going to do it.

Mark's Memorial fund going to provide Bookcases at a school in Mexico

Mark has an ongoing Memorial Fund as mentioned in a previous blog.Mark even contributed to it. He had over 200 dollars in his wallet when he died and this was added to his Memorial Fund. Mark was an avid reader which helped him get through the days after his cancer diagnosis and his prognosis of 3 months or less to live. Reading helped him get through all the chemotherapy and radiation, pain, vomiting and lack of energy, etc. Much of his memorial fund has gone to pay for bookcases at the Ramon Mario Bahena Rodriguez grade school in Reynosa, Mexico. We have sent many boxes of books to the school and are looking for more good children's books in Spanish to send.The school has gone from no library books to lots of books. Our goal is to be able to send at least one book home with each student soon and to increase this goal over time. There are approximately 320 students at this school so its a lot of books.
On March 21st we went to Mexico and dedicated the bookcases at the school. We took 4 computers to the school that Goodwill donated in Mark's memory. There were great festivities at the school with the children from each class doing presentations. I received a plaque for my concern for the education of the school's children and I must admit I didn't earn this plaque alone. I had a lot of help from memorial fund donors and people helping me collect books for the school and the Goodwill. I felt certain Mark was looking down and smiling in approval of this use of his memorial funds.

To those of you who have cancer and are looking for encouragement after receiving poor prognoses, I hope you will get some help from reading all of Mark's blog which addresses his 12 plus years of life after diagnosis and prognosis and up until his death from a non cancer cause.