every year i played in a charity softball tournament in central park. for those of you around the first weekend in june, it is a pretty great event over near sheep meadow. there are about 60 teams from across the country playing to raise money for brain tumor research.
living in Minnesota, this was a chance to reconnect with Mark at least once a year. i'd call and he'd show up, usually after we had been eliminated at the quarterfinals. the team was mainly neurosurgery residents from Mayo. their average age was about 30. all of them smart, bright and terribly interesting people. Mark would come by and he'd take all 20 of us to some UWS bar that he was a regular at. and his choice of venue was always flawless.
i could tell that he really enjoyed being with young, smart dynamic people. i take it for granted because i work with them every day. By the end of the bar crawl, mark had spent time talking to every single one of them, asking questions, challenging their answers, and making them laugh. to mark, it was very important for him to connect to younger people and kids. in retrospect, the memory is bittersweet. the last time we got together at the tournament was June 2015. it was the last time i saw mark. at least on that day, i can say he was happy.
Awesome. Yes, "the last time". Thanks Bill