Mark was my cousin. His adoptive Mom,  Hazel,  was my great aunt, sister to my Grandmother, Bonnie Jones. I am so sad to learn of Mark's passing. He was always kind to me as his younger cousin. He was funny, mischievous,  and I recall his "optimum" rock n roll band name of Erotica-. It warms my heart to know he was able to connect with his biological family, as I am sure it was extremely important to him. Rest in peace Mark- with much love to all of his family.

Lisa Tranter 

There has never been another person on the face of this earth that I've wanted to meet more than your Mark!! I assumed meeting his children (my niece and nephews) would soon follow. Unfortunately, that day never happened, I never had the great honor of meeting my little brother who I thought and dreamed about for SO many years.

You see, none of us even knew Mark existed until about 1977 and it was a complete accident I found out... during a fight between my parents and they weren't even fighting about Mark.

About 5 years later, our mother asked me to try to find him. She had very little information, basically only the hospital and the doctor. Apparently it was a private adoption, so there was no paper trail to follow. Of course, this was before Scientists had discovered DNA.

It wasn't until I received a call from my little sister, Pammy, that my prayers were answered! It was sort of a weird phone call, to say the least, because it was an estranged Great Uncle of ours who found Mark and called Pam to inform her. It turned out, we all have Mark's daughter, Melissa, to thank for this miracle!!! The way Mark explained it to me was Melissa had gotten him an Ancestry Kit for Father's Day, several years ago. Once he got the results back, he wasn't exactly shocked, he said, he was more relieved for finally knowing the truth.

I have no idea how much time Mark had to process the information he was given but when Pammy called to tell me they him, through my tears, I asked if she had called him. She told me she hadn't, she didn't know what to say or how he would react. So, once we were done crying and I had calmed down enough to not sound like a blubbering idiot, I called Mark.

• We instantaneously hit it off, like we had known each other our whole lives!!! Mark and I talked about EVERYTHING and I mean E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G... we found out we had the same toes, we basically liked the same foods, he talked about his children like they were Angels walking on this earth and his Grandchildren of whom he just adored!! I told him about ALL 9 of my brother's and sister's and our mother. We both suffered from depression and how everyday was a struggle. By the time the phone call ended, we had been talking for over six (6) hours. The funny part was , it barely felt like 30 minutes! Lol  Mark and I have had many phone calls since that first one, each one lasting no less than four (4) hours. He called me each time he met someone new from his biological side and we would get into deep conversations about how he felt. Although we would always end up talking about non-sense and laughing our asses off, to the point where neither of us could breathe!
• Unfortunately, this past year Mark and I were not able to speak as much as we would have liked... he seemed more distant, which was how he would get if he was trying to meet up with a woman he was interested in.  Although I was not able to meet him, I felt as though I knew his soul, inside and out.  I loved him just as I love each of my other brothers and I felt very protective of him.  
• I will miss Mark for the rest of my life!!