Mark Joseph Ramirez
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Mark's obituary
MARK J RAMIREZ
First of all, I want to thank each of you all so very much for coming, I know it’s a Monday
and many of you traveled and took off work to be here and we are SO deeply grateful.
We have felt such an outpouring of love from our family and his friends who have
become our family as well.
As many of you know, I am Mark's daughter, Kimberlee and We are all here to celebrate
the life of my incredible father, Mark Joseph Ramirez.
I would love to tell you about his life and who he was...I’ll start with some facts first, then
get to the juicy stuff;)
He was born at Providence Hospital in Oakland, CA to Mary and Oswaldo Ramirez on
the 11th of September, 1955.
He grew up with 2 brothers–David and Danny, and one sister—Martha.
As many of you know, he married my mother, the amazing and gorgeous Kathy
Ramirez, on December 10, 1983 and had 3 beautiful children, Christopher, myself, and
Matthew.
..and with cosmic irony, he departed this Earth and went to his heavenly home on my
birthday, October 30, 2022 at 1:30am. I happened to be in the desert of Joshua tree
with my brother Matt camping with our friends and celebrating both our birthdays and
unfortunately did not receive the news til we left to return home the following day. I tell
you the truth though, I felt the presence of God at about the moment of his passing,
Matt and I both did. And we know although we didn’t get to say goodbye at the hospital
as many of you did, we believe he was present with us as well and would’ve been
happy we were doing what he taught us to love, camping and making memories with
family and friends.
We can all hardly process his sudden departure, but know he is completely at peace in
a fully restored and strong body. We’ve been envisioning his welcoming committee and
the scene of him getting to the pearly gates—we picture him running and busting
through the final finish line with at least 10 shelties running to him and his parrot Bingo
flying up to greet him.
Who remembers Bingo??
We see Jesus and his brothers—David and Danny and his father Ozzy, his best friends
Todd and Charlie and Jim Whittam and many more brothers and friends and angels
welcoming him home.
As you all know, my dad was an amazing man who lived life to the MAX. He was a man
of faith who loved his family and had an infectious smile and zest for life. We say he had
well over 9 lives...AT LEAST. His biggest near death experience was when he was in
his 20’s when a work truck exploded on him and I believe ever since then he vowed to
live life to the absolute fullest and tried to enjoy every second, working hard and playing
harder. He went skydiving and loved adventure. He loved skiing, boating, camping,
hiking, and Running (boy did he love running?). He loved getting his friends and families
together with bbq’s at the house—always with delicious food and for nearly every
occasion.
He LOVED laughter and comedy and was always smiling and causing others to smile.
He loved health and wellness and his Faith. He liked to preach health but when it came
to his faith in Jesus, he preferred to lead by example (although he wasn’t afraid to share
his faith).
A notable example of this is when my friend from Starbucks was in need and he
adopted her and her family into ours as his own about 15 years ago. Jessie, you and
yours are forever family, I hope you know that...
He was warm and welcoming and made everyone feel comfortable. He served as a
greeter for the neighborhood church for years and was also known as the mayor of the
iron horse trail —a 32 mile trail by our house that he ran daily—rain or shine or dark or
freezing cold, he was out there as long as he was able. I can picture him running up
along strangers and encouraging them to keep going as I’d seen him do before.
I also learned so many lessons through his example, I have 5 Mark essentials for you:
1) Always show kindness to strangers—he was always making friends and making
people smile—from our waiters or grocery clerks to random people on the street, he
always made time for people.
2) Discipline will get you far —this man would get up at 5am every day and be reading
his bible sipping his coffee and having quiet time before going for a long run—he called
5 miles a cake walk...I only run 1 mile if there’s cake at the end...and ice cream
3) PRIORITIZE FUN and ADVENTURE! Oh my goodness we had some wild
vacations... Anyone seen the national lampoons family vacation movies? Yea if you
never had a vacation with my dad, they were always epic and wild. We went RVing to
Yellowstone, skiing in whiteout blizzards, road trips and crazy boating and camping
adventures where we had to be rescued several times... but hey I wonder if one of the
reasons they were so wild because that made for the best memories and the best
stories...
I remember one time we were out in the boat I believe in lake shasta, and a storm came
and the boat was rocking and the engine fell off the boat and my dad tried to grab and
hold on to this couple hundred lb engine and the boat is all tilted up sideways and we
almost capsized and had to be rescued from the middle of the lake.. Oh my
gosh...another favorite of mine is when he took me to father daughter camp–and we
both conquered fears together... he wanted to play paintball and I was terrified but did it
for him. He yelled “cover me!” and ran to capture the other teams flag while I hid behind
a log and he got LIT UP....I WASNT READY! lol
Then I wanted him to do the ropes course and I was scampering around the course like
a spider monkey and he was shaking like a leaf and looked like a baby giraffe, omg it
was too funny.. I so loved him for being willing..
4) Fourth lesson, FAITH FIRST—he prayed with us at every meal, and read his bible
daily...
My dad was like an energizer bunny most of my life and I know all these things are what
fueled him.. plus his famous fruit shakes and vitamins..
Okay quick story—please forgive me for telling this dad, remember I said he had at
least 9 lives.. well let me tell you those fruit shakes and vitamins did not always mix well
together..
Sometimes he would take a handful of vitamins then chase it down with a thick fruit
shake...
And my poor mother had to give him the hemlock 3 times, well technically Jeff did one
time..after texting my mom “I think mark is choking, what do I do!?” lol
But one time it was while she was driving!!! She had to pull over on a road trip and I
remember her giving him the Heimlich on the side of the dang highway...oh my lord it
was terrifying, but save that one in your back pocket as we found it does work...am I
right Jeff, mom?
5) Okay and the 5th and final lesson was always tell your people that you love them. He
wasn’t afraid to tell us he loved us and also wasn’t afraid to speak of death. He made
sure I knew we weren’t promised tomorrow with our loved ones so we need to spend
quality time as often as possible and make as many memories as possible.
Just this year, he planned 3 vacations and I am SO grateful because he and my fiancé
Justin got to know each other well. We did yosemite and he rented us a cabin in the
forest and then he flew me up to come to Carmel for his birthday this year and then he
came down to San Diego just at the beginning of October and I am forever grateful we
got to spend this time together. It was so healing and so good.
So lets all take these lessons from the Mark Ramirez handbook–let’s live our lives to the
absolute fullest, exercise self discipline, prioritize time with our loved ones, always tell
them you love them, keep our faith, and always be kind to strangers.
As he loved to say, Yesterday’s history, tomorrows a mystery, but today is ____GOD’s
GIFT, that’s why we call it the present.
So lets make the absolute most of it people.
Love you all, love you dad.
Kimberlee Marie
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