Can't Cry Hard Enough

(This is Mark with DFS girls during one of our "riot" days)

Love and death are the two great gifts that we pass on—and usually they are
passed on unopened.
— Rainer Maria Rilke


This morning I received a message from a friend I haven't seen for some
time...at first I thought it was just one of those "hello's and "hi's" of
friends missing each other. Never did it cross my mind that it was bad
news...really bad news - our pal Mark passed away.

I could not believe it at first, I was speechless, Mark was one of the
jolliest guys in our group at Dell Financial Services (DFS) (I used to work
here). He was not one of those "irate" guys, he was down to earth and
really one of the "good natured" colleagues. I remember, he would always
offer me a cup of coffee during breaks and after shifts. Mark fondly calls
me "mommy", well actually all of them do.

Our group shared so many fun moments together- the sing-alongs and "drinking sprees" at MetroWalk, breakfasts at McDo El Pueblo, weekend overnights and even the smoking
sessions in front of the office building - all these were really fun and riot moments.

Mark's demise ( he drowned, while taking a vacation in Cagayan de Oro) was
really a great loss to us. Just last week, Ray, also a member of our group, and I were planning a get-together before Christmas when he comes back (he is now in the US for a month-long training and will be back on the 13th of this month). We were
looking forward to another memorable reunion but with Mark's passing away, we might not be able to enjoy just as we did in our past get together.

Losing a friend is never easy but keeping yourself calm and maintaining his
memory are important elements of the grieving process. This is really a
very hard time in our lives but we have to accept and be reassured by the
reality that we are all destined to leave this world.

The grief of losing is intense. Pain, memories and questions haunt us.
Sometimes the grief would make us not want to laugh again, this is normal,
and understandable. But what matters is how we overcome the pain, how we
become laughing human beings again, how we gather our senses and live life
again.

In our loneliest moments, let us always remember that there are true
friends around who are willing to lend a shoulder to cry on, who are
willing to give hope when all the rest have turned their back. Most of all,
there is our Creator, He is always beside us and carries us when we are too
weak to walk.

Mark, may you find genuine peace with our Creator.....